zººsºs §), ſae!“ſae ſººſ () 。、、。 3 & & & & . , , *) );<&$ ſº ſº. “, “*”. ! *ſ*…! № × × × × × × × ! ±,±,±,±), Ķ ¿º, ,'$$ ,¿ ſae §§§ ºſºs *:)*). L’ae , , º £! * , ſºſ º. 3. ºſae ſºſ, “№ -------> ---------— -------------—---, i —---—- ---—— --—----------------- - -— ----------, ------ fº//WG CHI Jººzz of MI / Wºj -- - Y\\\\\\\\\\\ ~ * ----------.” .-------—------- Q) A T 46 , E & yº Zºo lºoz Ar \ ( \- ~ 2/2/2/22/22/2//e % {_* C ‘Zły Z//zo////zz.s"./OVZ.S. Deputy Registrar of the Archd” of Brecon. %, 2.0%a zeº, %22/2/222, ažze, zoº 20/02/2/2/2, o/o/6/20 %22 ozoº, %20% !”. a/.4%, /Zoºezzz, ozz 22%, /2/622. %20oz. &./222a. ºzzº (2222222&/ — ‘Z%zz: A&AEsz Zzó Z C/Z ZZZC&ZZZ, §. :-- :*::Fººt º:-ºº: ºr.-- - §: ś sºs::s:#Es: *- s - :2. \,. d ºº:: : º: sº- º: sº- 8.--> §: : º *º-ºº: º É #Sº º - š §§§ V. §::$: º ºº: ºººº. §: 3:#############$$. jº :*Sº §§§ §: § §§ ::::::::::::$º §§ ºš gººse:sº: Sºº G £º: if: º§ §§§ § § ſº § % Wºº § % tºº §: § sº gº º § º sº * . º §§ * - - * - - tº sº. B R E C K N O C K. 9”/ed, and/ ,50// 4v. Mº"& Geo ./Voz/A, Zºoo/6.se/Zez:s, &c. - For ZZzz -4 vizzoze, .” Jo// 40.7 Złoo/, Z/e ºved Zºrand Zace Zowdow". 1805. to THE Rev. HENRY THoMAs PAYNE, RECTOR of LLANBEDR AND PARTRICIO. so *ICAR OF DE VyNock IN THE C ouw Ty of me CKNOCK, - . . 43 Abº acknowirrents: OF The Assistance HE HAS weaven. * * - -- …” Testimony of that Friendship which he feels. • prºud tº publicly to aros, : - - as he - - is Harry IN PRIVATE LIFE to ExPERIENCE, - THIS volume, *** is gratervily isscribed, (without PERMISSION}. - BY THE AUTHOR, TH E present work owes its origin to the perusal some years ago, of the collections of a friend, whose talents were much better calculated to elucidate the subjects and record the events here treated of, than it has fallen to my lot to possess; but a determination on the part of that friend not to appear before the public, his wish that I would undertake a history of our native county, and the kind promise of * his assistance, which has been amply and frequently received, induced me to commence, and will encourage me to persevere in a labour foreign to my profession, though congenial to my feelings and my pursuits. - - - * , For some time after my resolution had been formed, I hesitated whether I should make it public, or whether it would not be more prudent to conceal my intentions until the work was nearly ready for the press; on the one hand it was probable that if it were long in contemplation and generally known, expectations would be formed of its merits, which would end in disappointment, on the other I reflected that publicity and the avowal of my pursuit might produce information, which otherwise might escape me; the latter inducement prevailed and I have great reason to be satisfied with my determination; what the value of the aggregate of the knowledge thus acquired, added to such as I may have collected from various authors, from written documents, iv ~ PREFACE. . documents, or my own observations may be, the public will decide upon; but I am convinced that many hints occasionally received, have corrected some errors, and rectified my too hasty conclusions, though at the expence of much labour and sometimes to my temporary morti- fication. I have more than once recorded an anecdote apparently authentic, and supported an hypothesis founded (as I conceived) on sound argument and safe principles, which have been overturned by one anlucky objection, and my beautiful little card-house blown down by one merciless puff from “your plain matter of fact man.” It is very extraordinary that the obstacles in the way of information upon many subjects should arise from causes so completely opposite, and from sentiments so directly the reverse of each other; yet so it is; those who set too high or too low a value upon the knowledge or documents they possess, Or the commu nications they have in their power to make to authors employed in topographical history, are equally (though I believe involuntarily) enemies to pursuits of this nature: many a valuable mo- nument of early days, known to the villager, to the farmer and even to the minister of the parish, because it is seen by all, and familiar to the eyes of every one in the neighbourhood, remains hidden from the antiquary, who if he by chance discover it and reproach . his corres- pondent for neglecting it, is generally answered by expressions of astonishment at the insignificance of his inquiry, and his ignorance of what it is supposed the whole world knows, because it is known to all within the circuit of five miles round it: on the other hand there are those who think their treasures are of such immense value, that they can never be too carefully guarded or too safely locked up ; the consequence is that they are devoured by vermin or insects, lost by casualties, or rendered useless by the destructive ravages of time. Should the histo- rian seek access to them, and should that historian unfortunately be of the PREFACE. W. the profession of the law, (avocations which seldom unite, and do not easily amalgamate though their compositions are not heterogeneous) suspicion is alive and prudence bolts the door against the intruder, who it is supposed can have no other motive for his inquiries than the disco- very of objections to titles, the propagation of scandal or the abrasion of old sores which have long cicatrised. With all these impediments, fortunately there are in this, as well as in all other counties in this kingdom, some, who think an inquiry into the occurrences that, have passed of old in their native plains, to be of utility or at least to afford a rational amusement, and who therefore wish to encourage the illustration of the manners, customs, arts, sciences or projects for the improvement of the agriculture, commerce or manufac- tures of their native soil, and though from accident, perhaps from inattention, I may not have availed myself of all the knowledge to be obtained from persons of this description, I have many to thank for their assistance and more than it would be here pertinent to enumerate. It was my wish to have given in this volume an accurate map of the county from an actual survey ; the risk and expence I found to be too great for an individual of moderate fortune to hazard, and I was therefore advised to publish one by subscription; before I sent my proposals abroad I thought it would be prudent, as well as respectful to acquaint those of elevated rank and opulent fortunes in the county with my intentions, as the example set by them would either encourage my design or deter me from the further pursuit of it: and here the transient recollection of this embryo project irresistibly compels me to pay my grateful tribute of respect to the memory of the late Duke of BEAUFORT, not only for his offer of a liberal subscription but for his immediate attention to my letter. This favour I can never forget, I am proud to acknowledge it, and I trust that the mention of so dignified a name without the knowledge - {} +f * vi PREFACE. of any part of the family, will not give offence to any individual of that • illustrious house. I am under a similar obligation to Sir Charles Mor- ! GAN. To some respectable noblemen whose time was so completely +. occupied in the service of the state, or the duties of the senate, that it became inconvenient to them to return a written answer to my appli- cation, I am indebted for their good wishes, as well as their benevolent intentions of contributing a few eleemosynary guineas towards the expence of the publication and the support of the publisher, which have been occasionally most kindly communicated to me by their agents; and to many of the gentlemen and inhabitants of the county, who were really anxious that I should prosecute what they considered as a work of public utility, and who were ready to assist in the execution of it, I return my unfeigned thanks. - The map introduced in this volume may probably not be correct; but I will venture to assert that it is much more accurate than any hi- therto published. There are not many miles in any direction through the county which I have not traversed, and some parts are copied from surveys ; the names of places are in a known language, which is more d than can be said of those that precede it; though at the moment I am : writing, it occurs to me that I am at the mercy of an English engraver s it shall however go hard with me, before I suffer it to appear in the “gypsy jargon” hitherto seen. . . . . For the designs of the greatest number of the plates in this volume, I am indebted to the kindness of Sir Richard HoARE, who has likewise undertaken to supervise the engravings ; those who have seen the views in Mr. CoxE's Monmouthshire, will know how to estimate the value of such assistance. And here it may not be irrelevant to explain what may be liable to be } misunderstood in my proposals; they are, I believe, in some respects - - -- . singular, PREFACE. vii singular, perhaps imprudent, but (as I have truly stated in them) emo- lument is not my principal object in the publication. The reader who has seen those proposals will recollect that I have said, the subjects treated of in this volume will be completed with as few references alS possible to the next. Upon the perusal of the title page as well as the pages that follow, it will be found that these subjects are the chorography, general history, language, manners, customs, &c. of the county at large, in which much of the history of the principality is of course involved. The next volume will contain the topography and parochial description of the same district, to which will be prefixed a brief survey of the archdea- conry of Brecon, and in which the errors in Ecton's Thesaurus will be corrected : it will likewise contain a greater number of plates than the present, as a few portraits, all the antiquities, and some of the most remarkable views in Breconshire will be selected : as to the seats of no- blemen and gentlemen, though they have been inserted in some county histories, they are not in general sufficiently interesting to any but the proprietors, who, when they wish to have them introduced, contribute, towards the expence of the plate; if any gentleman wishes to follow this example, I shall of course not object to receiving plates of this description, but I do not think myself justified in soliciting the public to subscribe to such engravings. Among the portraits I hope to have a very interest- - ing one, of that very extraordinary character Sir DAVID GAM, from an original picture, and if any lady or gentleman will oblige me before the work goes to press, with the loan of any portrait, or permission to copy a picture of any eminent person born in, or connected with Brecknock- shire, it will be esteemed a particular favour and if lent it will most assur- edly be returned without injury. - ; * * To the English reader who may chance to take a bird's eye view over . . . . the vii. PHEFACE. • . . . - - tremen dous cluster of names in the pedigree inserted in the appendix, it will be no recommendation to the next volume, when I inform him that he will find in it the genealogies of all the principal families in this coun- ty, not indeed in the bewilderi ng manner in which the descendants of Brychan are arranged, (over which, while the Saxon travels, I foresee the danger of his breaking his neck) but in future every house will contain its own. tribe and descent as long as the surname continues. This study. thou sh interesting to some, and particularly so to the inhabitants of the county, cannot be agreeable to all, yet it ought not to be omitted in a. - work of this nature: this is one among other reasons which induced Iſle- to offer an option of accepting or rejecting the next volume, to those of my subscribers who may think their time mispent in . tracing “the boast of heraldry or reviewing the pomp of power,” which will not however occupy a very considerable portion of the book, -- It would ill become me to expatiate on the merits or demerits of this, work as it proceeds; on these the public must decide. Authors are ge- nerally too fond of their own productions, and like many other parents, too lenient to the defects. of their offspring to act as impartial judges. but I have adopted in my progress one rule which I will venture to re- - commend to all, who like myself, are, infected with the caco ethes scribe ndi:- this rule is, never to quote from a quotation, extract or copy, when access. can be had to the original: all will admit its propriety, but the public are hardly aware how few writers attend to, and what mischiefs and errors ensue from the neglect of it. Some instances will be found in this volume, as when we are told by those who quote the authority of Caesar as to the origin of Druidism, “that Caesar affirms that the doctrine of the Druids was first found in Britain, and afterwards propagated in Gaul.” Caesar makes no affirmation as to this doctrine, but merely gives a report which had reached his ears as to its rise. Again Warrington “. -- PREFACE. . - is refers to lord Lyttleton's life of HENRY II. as to the marvellous expedition of Milo FitzwalTER into Cardiganshire, to relieve the - besieged countess of Clare; lord Lyttleton quotes GIRALDus CAM- BRENsis who says not a word of the exploit, though he twice or thrice mentions the name of MILo Fitzwal.TER, and though, he lived soon - after this event is supposed to have occurred : at last the anecdote is traced by the indefatigable historian CARTE, to an anonymous chronicle of dubious credit: as to the mistakes of names, like that of Llech-y-creu for Llechryd, in the different editions of Powel. I could give innumerable instances of these inaccuracies, and I have only to entreat that the reader - who doubts the correctness of my assertion, when I venture to fix an imputation of this kind upon authors who stand highly in the opinion of the world, will take the trouble of comparing the titles, substances and dates of the meetings and adjournments of parliaments, as given by HUME and SMoLLET, with the records themselves in the volumes of - statutes at large, the acta regia and the documents in the public offices, and he will be astonished at the inattention of even these respectable historians. * , Before I conclude, I find that some apologies are due to the public, perhaps more may be required; as far as they affect my own feelings, I make them without hesitation or reluctance, although I lament that they should be necessary. Upon an attentive perusal of this volume, numer- ous typographical errors, and some defects Of another description will be observed, and perhaps the index is not perfectly methodical or complete, TO those who are in the habits of correcting the press and compiling - indexes little need be said. In London and the universities, these, I am informed, are considered as professions or trades, I pity from my soul those who are compelled to exercise them; they will never meet a com- * petitor in me if it can be avoided : from the remainder of my readers, * b after x PREFACE. • - …” after this acknowledgment of my apparent inattention, I have only to hope they will pardon a very young author, who will endeavor to be more accurate in future. Where those errors are obvious, and are only a transposition or mistake of a letter, it would be wasting time and paper to notice them, but when the sense becomes obscure or where it may be perverted either by my own or the printer's inadvertence, they will be rectified in a table of errata, which however painful it may be, so frequent- ly to refer the reader, I must request him to wiłł peruse, as without it, I am obliged to admit, the work will be in some parts unintelligible, The critic will, perhaps, tell me that this page is full as entertaining as any one in the history. T he word scite (I am aware) is spelt dif- ferently in the work from the modern way; it is so written in antient muni- ments, and to me it appears to give greater stability to the spot described than its flitting substitute of the present day, if however, the voice of the learned is against it, in my next it shall be site. Some names of places are also given in different ways, as Caerdiff and Cardiff, Caermar- then and Carmarthen, Penkelley and Penkelly; men who understand and write the Welsh language, write them thus differently, and have sanctioned by long and undoubted authority the indiscriminate use of both these modes of spelling, the latter, if written grammatically, and with a view to its etymology, should be spelt Pencelli, but this would be downright pedantry. The professional critic will, perhaps, Smile at the probabilities in this book, but let us hear the historian Livy. - - • . “Quis rem tam veterem pro certo affirmet”; - Lib. 1. Cap. 3. And his subsequent conclusion was as just as it is obvious. - - “Famae rerum standum est ubi vetustas derogat Certain fidem.” Lib. 7. Cap. 6. If • PREFACE, ki If this position be admitted, I trust to receive some indulgence, if I too hastily or frequently (as it should seem) follow tradition, or if I am sometimes compelled to resort to conjecture, whatever may be the fate of this publication, I shall say in the language of Buchanan; “Ego vero, tantum abest ut haec refelli moleste feram, ut si quis certiora do- eeat ac de errore me deducet ei maximam gratiam sim habiturus.” \ .-- Z - Assworn Harland, Esq. Swansea Barker, Wm. Higgs, W. of Carmarthen,&c. The Miss Bassets, Cardiff Bathurst, Rev.Dr. Prebendary of Durham BEAUFORT, his grace, the duke of, lord lieutenant of the county of Brecon Berrington, Jenkin Davies, attorney at law, Swansea Bevan, Richard, M. D. Neath Bevan, Richard, Esq. Boswell Court, London - Beynon, Rev. Thomas, Llandilo fawr, vicar of Penboyr, &c. t Bishop, Tho. attorney at law, Llandovery Bold, Hugh, Esq. Brecon Bold, Hugh, junior, Esq. do. Bold, Thomas, attorney at law, do. Booth, Mr. Bookseller, &c. Portland Place Bourne, John Taylor, attorney at law, Monmouth Bray, Wm. Esq. Great Russel Street Brown, John, Esq. Presteigne Brown, Charles, attorney at kaw, Cardiff Caldecott, Thomas, Esq. - Cheese, Edmund, attorney at law, King- ton, 2 copies - Church, Samuel, do, Brecom, do. Clarke, Johr, and Surveyor Crawshay, Richard, Esq. Cyfarthfa Davies, DAVID's St. The right revd. the lord bishop of 2 copies Davies, David, M. D. Carmarthen Davies, Richard, Esq. Crickhowel Dr. Davies, Rev. vicar of Bury, Sussex Davies, Rhys, Esq. Swansea. Davies, Arthur, Esq. Bath Davies, Richard, Rev. of Court-y-gollen, rector of Cathedine, &c. - Davies, Richard, Rev. late canon of St. David's, &c. - Davies, R. Rev. archdeacon of Brecon Davies, James, attorney at law, Kington Davies, John James, attorney at law, Presteigne - Rev. Wenvoe Davies, David,land surveyor, Llangattock Davies, William, Esq. Cringell Davies, Reynold, Rev. Penderia Dilwyn, Lewis Weston, Esq. Swansea Donne, James, Rev. A. M. Oswestry DURHAM, the dean and chapter of Evan Evans, Esq. Cwmdulas - Evans, John, linen draper, Wood Street, Cheapside Edwards, Wm. attorney at law, Merthyr Tydvil Fenton, Richard, Esq. Fishguard Frankien, Thomas, Esq. Pwll-y-wrach SUBSCRIBERS, t Frederick Fredericks, Esq. Lanwyse GELL, John, Admiral of the Blue Giles, Peter, Esq. Streatham Park Glamorgan Library Gough, Richard, Esq. London Miss Greenly, Titley * Griffiths, Charles, Rev. Brecon, rector of Talachddu, &c. Gwyn, Matthew, Esq. Abercräf Gwynne, Roderick, Esq. Buckland Gwynne, Sackville, Esq. Glanbrån Hall, Benjamin, Esq. London Hamilton, Sir Edward, captain in the R.N. HARDINGE George, the hon, chief justice on the Brecon circuit Harris, James Lloyd, Esq. Kington HEREFORD, George, late lord viscount Hill, Richard, Esq. Caerdiff Hill, Richd. jun. Esq. Plymouth Lodge Mrs. Hill - Miss Hill, Cardiff Hoare, Sir Richard, Baronet, 2 copies Holford, John Josiah, Esq. London Holford, Charles, Esq. do. Mrs. Hughes, Tregunter Miss B. Hughes, Glazbury Hughes, John, Rev. do. . . . Hughes, Thomas Brydges, Esq. London Hullet, — Esq. Broad Street Build- ings, London James, Thomas Morgan, Rev. Brecon James, Bavid Jenkins, attorney at law, fºresteigne - Jeffreys, Gabriel, attorney at law,Swansea Jeffreys, John, ditto, ditto Jeffreys, Walter, Esq. Brecon Jenkins, Edward, M. º .# D. Presteigne Jenkins, R. Hoare, Esq. Pant-y-mawel & Jenner, R. Esq. Wenvoe Castle, 5 copies JOHNES, Thomas, Esq. M. P. Jones, Frederick, Esq. Brecon Jones, David, Esq. Llwynderw Jones, Edward, attat law, Llandovery Jones, Rees, land surveyor, &c. Swansea Jones, James, Esq. Lanthomas Jones, John, Rev. St. David's - Jones, William, Surgeon, &c. Mount Street, Grosvenor Square Jones, John, Rev. Pont-ar-fran Jones, Theophilus, Mr. Golden Square Kendall, Edward, Esq. Dan-y-Park Kendall, Jonathan, Esq. Bath King, Edward, Esq. Marino Kinsey, R. Morgan, Esq, Abergavenny Knight, John Bruce, Esq. Aberdâr Landeg, Colonel, Brynwhilan Laugharne, John, Captain in the R.N. Lewis, Thomas Frankland, Esq. Harp- ton, 2 copies Lewis, Percival, Esq. Downton Lewis, Thomas, att, at law, Llandilo fawr Leigh, Capel Hanbury, Esq. Pont-y-pool Mrs. Leigh, ditto f flewelyn, John, Esq. Penlle’rgaer - Lisle, Edward Berkin Mêakham, Rev. D. D. St. Fagan's - Lloyd, John, Esq. Aberannell. Lloyd, John, Esq. Brecon Mrs. Llwyd, Pantgās Lucas, Robert, Rev. rector of Llangynidr LYGON, William Beauchamp, Esq. M. P. Madresfield, Worcestershire Maber, George Martyn, Rev. vicar of Merthyr Tydvil Macnamara, J. Esq., Llangoed, 12 copies Meyrick, William, attorney at law, Mier- thyr Tydvil. w SUBSCRIBERS. attock ºffiers, J. Esq. Cadoxtone Place, 2 copies Price, John, Rev. R. of Llan * aw, Miaes- MOIRA, Earl of Price, Penry, attorney at MOYSEY, Abel, The honorable, one yr-onn of the judges on the Brecon circuit Price, Mr. David, Park MORGAN, Sir Charles, bart. M. P. for Price, Rice, Rev. W. of Llanwrthw º the county of Brecon, &c. 2 copies . Price, Mr. Rice, Aberyscir MORGAN, Charles, Esq. M. P. Prichard, Charles, Surgeon, &c. Mount Morgan, William, Rev. Brecon Street Grosvenor Square - "Morgan, E. Esq. Recorder of Brecon Prichard, Joseph, Surgeon, &c. Brecon Morgan, Charles, Esq. Carmarthen Prosser, Rev. D. D. Prebendary of Morgan, William, Esq. Garawen Durham - Morgan, Mr. Charles, Talgarth Prosser, Thos. Rev. W. of Cwmdu, &c. Morris, William, Esq. Carmarthen Pugh, Benjamin, Solicitor, Howard St. * -- - - - London Nichol, William, Esq. Great George St. ... Hanover Square, .* ** Rickards, Robert, Rev. R. of Llantrisant Norris, John, Esq. Hawley House, Hants Mrs. Rice, Llwyn-y-brain ~ North, John, Esq. London - SALISBURY, Sir Robert, baronet, M.P. Norths, Messrs. Booksellers, &c. Brecon, for the Borough of Brecon -. 12 copies S . . . .* . andys, Stephen Myles, lieutenant of Nowel, Cradoc, Rev. R. of Llanvrynach º p yies, i. oxFORD, Earl of Scale, John, Esq. Aberdâr - 2 - SHERIDAN, RichardBrinsley, Esq.M.P. PAXTON, Sir William, M. P. Middle- Skyrme, William, Esq. Laugharne ton Hall SPENCER, Earl - . * Payne, Henry Thomas, Rev. R. of Llan- Spencer, James, attorney at law, Hay bedr, &c. Starke, Richard Isaac, Esq. Laugharne Payne, John, Esq. Droxford, Hants Castle - Peach, Samuel Peach, Esq. Tockington Thomas, Henry, Esq. Llwynmadoc Pennoyre, Thomas Stallard, Esq. London Thomas, David, Esq. ditto - . Philips, Thomas, Supervisor of Excise Thomas, Edward, Esq. ditto Pool, Edward, Esq. Homend Thomas, David, Esq. Pay Office, London Powel, J. att, at law, Brecon, 2 copies Thomas, Rees Goring, Esq. Tavistock Powel, Walter, do. do. Place, Tavistock Square Powel, Thos. Rev. R. of Cantreff Thomas, John, Rev. A. M. head master Mrs. Powel, Mount-pleasant of Lugton school Powel, Thos. Harcourt, Esq. Peterstone Thomas, Edward, Esq. Tregroes Powel, John, Esq. Moor Park Thomas, Benjamin, M. D. Kington PRICE, Richard, Esq. M. P. Thomas, Lewis, Esq. Briton Ferry Price, Thomas, Esq. Builth Thomas, Evan, late att, at law, Builth. --> SUBSCRIBERS, Thomas, John, Esq. Llwydcoed 'i'urbeville, Richard Turbeville, Esq. Ewenny - - Turton, William, M. D. Swansea Vaughan, Henry, M. D. London Waughan, Wm. attorney at law, Swansea Walker, Thomas, Esq. Bird's. Lodge, near Croydon, 2 copies Watkins, George Price, Esq. Mrs. Watkins Watkins, Thomas, Rev. A. M., &c. Pennoyre, 4 copies - - Watkins, Walter, Esq. Llydiadyway Whitcombe, Robert, attorney, Kington WILKINS, Walter, Esq. M. P. Wilkins, Walter, junior, Esq. Wilkins, Jeffreys, Esq. Brecon Wilkins, John Parry, Esq. ditto Wilkins, Wm. Esq. Prothonotary on the Brecon circuit * Wilkins, Cann, att. at law, Merthyr Williams, John Rev. W. of Laugharne Williams, John, Rev. W. of Nantmel Williams, Thomas, Rev. C. of the perpe- tual curacy of Llan-y-wern Williams, William, Esq. Ivy Tower Williams, Benj. Surgeon, &c. Brecon Williams, David, Rev. R. of Saham, Toni. Williams, Penry, Esq. Penpont Wm. Williams, Esq.Wheat Street Brecon. William Williams, Esq. Struet, ditto Williams, Rees, Esq. Aberpergwm Williams, Thos. attorney at law, Brecon Williams, Robt. att...at law, Monmouth Williams, John, Rev. Archdeacon of Cardigan. w Williams, John, Esq. Welinnewydd Williams, John, Esq. one of the Coroners for the County of Brecon Wills, John, Rev. D. D. Warden of Wadham College, Oxon. - - Wood, John, attorney at law, Cardiff Wrixon, Robert, Esq. Southerndown. WINDHAM, Thomas, Esq. M. P. Wynter, William, Esq. the late Wynter, Robert, Rev.rector of Penderin. Yeats, Osborne, Esq. Monk's-mill Page E R R A TA, ^y •º 5. i. 12. for Cardiganshire was contained in it, read consisted of Caerdiganshire only. 30. I. 7. for same repository, read Bodl. Libr. Oxon. , - 31. 1, 11. for praeipua, read praecipua, - 33. l. 2. for then, read since. ºr 43. 1. 2. for Regeet, read rege et. 54. I. 10. for wall, readwell. s 76. l. 4. for their own, read each other's. 82 and 83 are erroneously numbered 81 and 82. 101. I. 8. for mentioned below, read just mentioned, and add the asterisk in line 18 after Welsh chronicle. - - • 116. l. 7. for indignous, read indigenous. #21. I. 13. for second son, read eldest son. 136. In note. for makers, read makes. 153. 1. 4. for friar's preacher's, read friars' preachers. g 155. 1. 27. for par resounsynous avoim ew grannt, read par resouns q. mous avoins ew graunt, 224. l. last, save one, after accounted for, insert by. - e 253. 1. 21. for Clych, read Cylch. 255. l. 2. for Disserat, read Dissertat..: 279. l. 20. for talons, read claws. \ 299. 1, 22, after half, insert in November 1797. sº 303. for Cha. Lloyd, Esq. read Cha. Lloyd, Clerk, Jazz/dz/. - º 5% The Green ºne ºr the Aoundary of the County, the red of Hºodºods. ------------------ Ziarnpike ſtoads…Parish or Croſs Atoads. + Churcher or Chapezº. cLXVII pºz. zon, Zºzº,. 7%, ºnal/ Wºmeºw/e are the distances from /*recon. ºn centlemen. Jºaº or Manºon.r. m Castles. S C.A. L. E. - 7. * * 4. 5 6 7 8 9 mo Miles. |_ _ º - - Llanddewi º anyihan sel Abergues ºn Abergwessin $ s/ § * º - - sº - Dinº - - º a * Llanwrtyd º ** Llanddewir Cwm ºf $º º Aº Aondº' Sº +Llangynog - º -- - - - º º Cynog y º ge - º" * * - - º - - - º, - º º - º º - - - - Llanvihan º, º, * - - - G Zºnon - * Chabert - & Garthbºngy G. A Llandevaylog+ \, \ º - -- - - - - -- - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - -- * - I - 2/ºn, Melºydd 2. yºu william. A onzy Wall º 2 * Tar - º: Llandevalle + Lºzºwº C. zºº. Zºº” 9 º, º - º 7%. Map of o B R E C K N () ( K S H I z.r ſn.ccribed to the Gentlemen ºf the County by the ºr //zzanº/e .5 - - - ºy their Humaſe 3ervant 7%eophi/us Joneſ. HISTORY ...” OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE, A cHAPTER I. / of its antient and present N.ame—Definition of both—The District in which it formerly was and now is comprehended—Boundaries (beginning South Eastward). described.—Eatent in Length and Breadth.-Population.—Principal Rivers.- Mountains and Vallies.—General Nature of the Soil–Observations upon the Climate and Atmosphere. - ^, DRECKNOCKSHIRE, now also called BREconSHIRE, was antiently known D by the name of Garthmarthrin, or Garthmadrin, Fox-hill or Fox-hold, from that species of vermin with which it is not improbable this country was much infested when it was thinly inhabited, and before its cultivation could be far advanced. -- - … For the time when this appellation was assumed or conferred, the historian looks in vain, not even the glimmering light of fable or tradition can he hope to receive or expect to conduct him in his researches. It is however, worthy. of remark, that this name remained in Brecknockshire until the dissolution of religious houses in Great Britain, or at least until the attainder of the last duke of Buckingham of the name of Stafford; for in the rolls in the augmentation office, in the 17th of queen Mary, among his possessions, are recited “rents of assize amounting to 111, 16s. 8d. from tenants at will in Garthmadryn,” within the lordship of Brecknock. B .* This 2. HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. * general description may be said with, Leland, to be very montamius. This word is compounded of Garth and Madrin,” the former in the British language, signifies a clift, or a precipitous, or abrupt eminence, and is a synonym with Allt or Gal/t, tho’ the latter is generally covered with wood. Madrin, is an obsolete word. for a fox, which has been since succeeded by Llwynog, or the inhabitant of the bushes; and afterwards by Cadno, pronounced Canddo, the only name by which this, nocturnal depredator is at present known in South Wales; assuming therefore, (as we fairly may), that at a very remote, period of antiquity, these animals prouled. without controul or interruption through the woody brakes which covered the vallies, of this country, until upon the approach of man, they were driven into their fastnesses, where they resided for such a length of time as to characterize this part, of the principality, and from whence they were driven and nearly destroyed, by that. favorite of the Deity, on whom was graciously conferred “dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and, over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the face of the earth”; the appellation. of Garthmadryn, under such circumstances, must be admitted to be peculiarly appropriate to Breconshire, whose surface is a succession of undulations, and whose }, Brecknockshire derives its present appellation from a prince or regulus of that country, of the name of Brychan, who ruled over it about the year of Christ, 400, and died in 450, or thereabouts. From him, t this part of the principality of Wales. was called the Land of Brychan, which in the British language has been written at different periods, and according to the differing orthography of the times, Brechiniauc, Brechiniawg, Brechiniog, and Brecheiniog. *The name of a neighbouring county (Caermar- thenshire) may be supposed to be derived from the Same root, but etymologists have always brought Caerfyrddin (the town from whence the county takes its name) from Caeror Gaer-Fyrddin, Merlyn's fortification. I am loath to disturb a long received opinion, but doubting (as I find myself compelled to do) oftheexistenceofthis spawn of animp, (“incubo. vol. 5. p. 56. || Leland, It. + It has been suggested with some degree of plau- sibility, that as Wrekin (perhaps from Crugyn, a hillock, or Gwrychin, a bristle,) means an abrupt or steep mountain; Brecheiniog may be a corruption, of Wrekiniog, or rather Cruginiog or Gwrychiniog, full of mountains, or sharp ridges of hills, resembling the bristles on a hogs back, which it is said is con- firmed by the neighbouring counties being called Mërganwg, the maritime county; Penfro, the head, of the valley, or promontory on the western extrem- Before, genitus.” Gir. Camb.) who went to sea in a house. of glass, and was never after heard of; it seems to me that Caerſyrddin is more probably derived from Caer murddin, the town inclosed by a wall. What favors this conjecture is Giraldus's description of it, who calls it “urbs antiqua coctilibus muris,” and the Roman Muridunum (clearly from the same. source) confirms my opinion. .* ity of this island; but tho’ this definition is peculiarly. applicable to these three shires, the etymology is. novel, not perſectly idiomatical, such a change in the initial letter unusual, and as the concurring opinion of ages and authors who have written upon, the subject, have established the right of this British. prince to give name to Breconshire, he may as well. be allowed to retain that honour in future, (if such. it be), and with due deference to the antiquarian, further conjectures may be said to be unnecessary. / HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE, 3 Before the act of Henry Sth, which divided Wales into counties, the English with propriety, called this tract of country Brecknock, or the dominion or lordship of Brecknock, which has a near resemblance in sound to Brechiniauc or Brecheiniog. This termination auc, awg, w8 or og,” is intended in the British tongue to give to proper names “a local habitation,” and generally signifies a region or territory, of which the preceding part of the word is descriptive. Since the statute above alluded to, there is no error (as has been sometimes supposed) in calling this district Breconshire, quasi Brychan's shire; and as custom has sanctioned the indiscriminate use of this latter appellation, as well as that of Brecknockshire, the reader will not be surprized, or attribute it to inattention, if both these names occur in the course of this work. Tho' we know not with any certainty, the period when Britain, and particularly that part of it which lies westward of the Severn and the Dee, called formerly, and since by the natives Cymru, and now by the English Wales, was first inhabited, yet it is clear from the Roman stations and forts, as well as their public roads and works, still visible in this country, that it must have been peopled (thinly, as has already been observed), before they invaded this island. The introduction of the troops and garrisons of this enemy into the more fertile parts of the kingdom, in all probability, drove many to settle in those mountainous regions, and the subsequent incursions added to their numbers; tho’ even as late as the 5th century, we find the region of which I am about to treat, still described by the name of Garthmadrin. Wales, - however, even at that time, was divided into North and South; the former was called +y the Welsh, Gwynedd, or y Gogledddit, and the latter Deheubarth, (and sometimes Dyfed), which the Romans latinized into Venedotia and Demetia, to which two provinces, a third was afterwards added, called Powys, * - South Wales was again divided (but at what period it is difficult to determine, as will be seen by and by), intoSyllwg or Siluria, and Dyfed or Demetia; but etymologists are as much at a loss to define these words, as historians are to ascertain the boundaries of the two countries; Syllwg says,| Edward Williams (a very respectable bard and antiquarian, now living), means “a county abounding in beautiful prospects;” consequently the Syllwyr or Silures, were men who delighted to look at beautiful prospects, or in other words, lovers of landscape. This is very ingenious, very pretty, and very poetical, and let me hear the fastidious prosaic reader hesitate or deal in - -- - doubts *Awg or og at the end ofa word, also sometimes a peasant, &c. Hywel Dda's laws, in this it has an signifies theinhabitantofa place or country, as Ty, a adjective quality, which cannot well be translated #ouse; Taeawg or Taeog, the inhabitant of a house, into English, or at least not without much circuity, || Williams's history of Monmouth. . B 2 4. HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE, doubts at his peril. For the antiquarian, I have another morceau. The learned Dr. Whitaker, in his genuine history of the Britons, asserted, | tells us that Silures means “Silor illur, the great men, or they are greatmen.” After these greatmen, nothing but the punishment of peine forte et dure shall compel me to speak upon this subject; I had indeed, before I read these authors, too hastily formed an opinion that Silures was a corruption of Sylvestres, but this no true Briton will have the patience to hear, much less to examine, or to consider; I am not without hopes, however, of having better luck with Dyfed, at which my predecessors have been nibbling with equal industry. Dyfed, says Baxter in his glossary, is derived from defaid, sheep, because this country abounded with pasturage for sheep; but a much more profound and learned writer * pronounces the word to have been originally Di-fyd, without habitation, abode, or livelihood | | | Neither of these attempts at derivation are intitled to the smallest attention, and the latter is absurd. Dyfed, means precisely the same as the modern British word for South Wales, Deheubarth, which has superseded it; indeed the latter may be said to be a corruption or alteration of Deheufod or Deaufod, the country on the right; Bod being a common termination in that language, and signifying a place of residence, as Cwmbód or Cwmwd, now pronounced Comot, a residence in the vale; and Häfod or Hāf-bod, a summer retreat. It is indeed remarkable, that the Welsh have no other name for the South than Deheu, the right; an inhabitant therefore of that country, when describing the four points of the compass, is supposed to stand in the West with his face towards the East, in which situation, he calls the Northy Gogledd, (a radical Welsh word), y Gogledd-dir, or y Gogleddfod; and the South and neighbouring regions, Deheu, Deheubarth, Deheu-dir, or Deheu- fod, the land on the right, or on the right hand. The East and West are called | Page 89. * Origin of languages and nations, &c. by Row- wards and forwards, transversely and longitudi- land Jones,esq. ofthe InnerTemple, London, 1764. nally; he then chopped them small, as cooks do I feel myself indebted to the Monthly Reviewers for reminding me lately of this esquire, and long to introduce him to my readers. In comparison with this erudite anatomizer of words and syllables, all other etymologists past, present, or to come, must vanish, or at least hide their diminished heads ; Swift, with his All eggs under the grate, and Pail up and ease us, attempted to precede and to shew him the way, but he hobbied pitifully, and should not have been permitted to travel the same road, or to write upon the same subject as this man. His plan is, to reduce the Greek, Latin, English, and probably all other languages which he understood, into Welsh; these he dissected, cut across, back- parsley for sauce, and thus minced, he called them Celtic Roots. A few specimens are now before me; Rhadamanthus, Rhād a maintyw, heisgraciousand great; Trinobantes, Tyryn y pant, the land in the bottom; Ottoduni or Ottadani, YTy dano ni, the house under us; Brag, (malt), from Bar ag, a thing upon action; IIopo; Transitus Rhyd Ffordd, a way; perhydd, a free part; transitus, from trosti, ovel it; Sagillus, from Si ag allu is, he acts over the lower families; Spargapises, from Si-p-ar-ux-p-si-es, he is a thing above the thing that is lower; Panaxagoras, from Pen-ux-y-gwyr-as, the head over the lower people. - Ohel jam satis. HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. 3. y Ddwyrain, andy Gorllewin; two of the most beautiful and poetical words which any language can boast of. The first may be translated the active or lively, and joyous arising, and reminds us of that sublime passage in the Psalms of David, in which it is said the sun “cometh as a bridegroom out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a giant to run his course;” and the latter word means, a resting place on high . . both these expressions are now nearly obsolete, and the points are in South Wales generally described by the English names, even by those who speak the Welsh language; but to return to Dyfed, (in which province I apprehend Breconshire WaS included, notwithstanding the general opinion is to the contrary,) * Giraldus Cam- brensis $ makes the province so called, to comprehend the whole of South Wales, while Sir John Price and Powel || confine it to Pembrokeshire alone; others have supposed that Cardiganshire was contained within it; and Warrington; says, Mon- mouthshire and the whole of South Wales were in Demetia, excepting Radnorshire. Camden, upon the authority of Ptolomy, asserts, that the Dimetae inhabited Caermarthenshire, Pembrokeshire, and Cardiganshire: But let us see what Ptolomy says, (I use a translation published at Frankfort, in 1605). * * * * “Iterum sub dictis populis (Trinoantes aut Trinobantes) sunt metae (ºrz.) aliter Dimetae in quibus urbes [Aovsvrivoj - - * - Loventium. Maridunum. His magis orientales Silyres sunt in quibus urbs Bulleum. f * - Here then we have one city with its “muris coctilibus” safe enough. The Muridunum or Maridunum of the antients, has been universally admitted to be the modern Caermarthen; but ask where Loventinum or Loventium was, - 'Twas here, ’twas there, At Nova Zembla, or the Lord knows where. If *Awriter in the Cambrian Register (vol.2, p.8) agrees with mein placing Breconshireamong the Dimetae, • § Itin. passim.Cambriae descriptio. - | Description of Wales, prefixed to Powel's history. Powel's hist. of Wales. f Warrington's hist. of Wales, vol. I. 8vo. edit. p. 227. + This is a strange description, “much to the West of these (the Trinoantes or Trinobantes) are the Metae or Dimetae, among whom are situated, the cities of Loventium and Maridunum, &c.” To the westward of the Trinoantes or Trinobantes (the inhabitants of Middlesex and Essex) were the Catieuchlani, or inhabitants of Buckinghamshire; then proceeding westward, the Attrebates, or in- habitants of Berkshire; then the Dobuni, or men of Gloucestershire; then the Silures, or men of Mon- mouthshire, Glamorganshire, and Herefordshire; and lastly, westward of all these were the Dimetae; so that this is pretty much to the same effect as if a geographer describing modern Europe, said “To the westward of Little Tartary is France, on tha east of which is Switzerland.” ** é HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. If it was situate as Camden conjectures, where Llangorse pool or Brecknock mere now is, there is an end of the difficulty at once, and Brecknockshire is part of Dyfed. from the evidence of the author whom he himself quotes.|| One of Camden's annota- tors having heard of the discovery of some old ruins and bricks in Cardiganshire, has, from the similarity of the sounds, placed Lovantium as he calls it, at Llannio issa, in that county; this is something like Fluellin’s Macedon and Monmouth, for there are certainly 's in both;* but if every Llan in Wales be a Loventium, we shall have cities enough to supply the continent of Europe. Butlet us hear Camden’s own words, for he certainly forgets that he is in Demetia, when he talks upon the subject; according to his arrangement, speaking of Llynsavaddan or Llangorse mere, he says,s (and says truely), “it hath been an antient tradition in this neighbourhood, that where the lake is now, there was formerly a city, which being swallowed up by an earthquake, resigned its place to the waters; and to confirm this, they alledge besides other arguments, that all the highways in this country tend to the lake; which, if true, what other city may we suppose on the river Lleweny, t but Loventium, placed by Ptolomy in this tract, which, tho' I have diligently searched for, yet there appears no where any remains of the name, ruins, or situation of it.” If therefore, Loventium was not here, it may be very safely asserted, that all vestiges of it elsewhere are totally effaced, and that all further attempts to ascertain its scite, can only end in idle conjecture and useless labour. } l - - Some of those who wish to support Camden’s opinion, that Breconshire was part of Siluria, have said, that Builth in that county, was the antient Bulleum Silurum; but tho’ Builth has a greater resemblance to Bulleum, than Llannioissa to Loventium, it is the adjacent country or hundred of Builth only which has been called Buallt, or Gwlad Fuallt, the land of Boscage. The town which is not of the highest antiquity, has always gone by the name of Llanfair or Llanvair ymhuallt, Saint Mary’s in Builth; and at this day, any one who says in the Welsh language, Yrydayſºn bywynhuallt, I live in Builth, is understood to mean that he lives in the country, and not in the town of Builth. Upon the authority therefore of Camden alone, supported or rather unsup- ported as he is, if not contradicted by the historian whom he quotes, rests the present general belief that the inhabitants of Breconshire were Silures, and that the country W3% . | Notein Camden's Britannia, or Cardiganshire. * Since I wrote the above, i have been informed perhaps avery considerable one in this place, but I that there are evidently the remains of the works am not prepared to admit the inference, that it must of the Romans at Llannio ; I am by no means be the scite of Loventium. inclined to deny that that people had a station, and - *. - $ Camden's Brecknockshire. f Llevenni, is pronounced Llyfrvy. Surely there is more of Loventium in the name of this river #han in Llannio issa. s. - ty - - - - - - - - -- - | | T HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE, 7. was not part of the province of Dyfed; for I lay no great stress (as far as it regards this question) upon a dispute at a very early period, between a bishop of Landaff and a bishop of Saint David’s about the lands of Ystradyw and Ewyas; as it frequently happened formerly, as at present, that a diocese had possessions in two provinces; but if the conjecture as to Llangorse pool's being the scite of Loventium be correct, or if Giraldus Cambrensis be accurate, though he proves rather too much, Camden must be wrong; and as the mistake of so respectable an author, first raised and has since continued this error, so that it is now become inveterate, and perhaps after all, incorrigible; I trust it will not be necessary to apologize, if this subject should require some further discussion, as well as consideration. Among the laws of Hywel Dda (an authority infinitely superior to Ptolomy Or Camden upon this subject) we have an account of the religious houses in Dyfed, belonging to the see of Saint David's, among which, are Llandegemman and Llan- geneu; but as the book is rather scarce, though to be had in most public libraries, I • shall quote the words : “Am saith ysgopty Dyfed. || Concerning the seven religious houses Saith ysgopty sydd yn Nyfed, un yw of Demetia. Mynywyn eisteddfa arbennig, a Mynyw . There are seven religious houses in yw’r penna yaghymru ; ail yW eglwys Dyfed, one is at Menevia, the cathedral, Ismael; trydydd yw Llandegemman ; and this is the first in all Wales; another pedwerydd yw Llanussylld ; pymmed is Saint Ismael; the third is Llandegem- Llandeilaw; chweched Llandyflydog; man; the fourth is Llanussylld; the fifth saithfed yw Llangenau. - Llangenau a Llandeilaw; thesixth, Llandeſlydog; and Llanussylld rhyddynto ebediweu, canys "the seventh, Llangenau. Llangenau and mid oes tyr eglwys iddynt.” Llanussylld are exempt from mortuaries, . . - as they have no church lands belonging to them. Llandegemman is the name of a farmin Saint Michael Cwmdu, in the hundred of Crickhowell, formerly Ystradyw; and though there is now no appearance of a religious house or monastery there, this may be easily accounted for, when we hear that the revenues attached to it were so small as not to be sufficient for its repairs. Llangenau, now spelt Llangeney, is a parish in the same hundred, near the Eastern boundary of this county, and adjoining to Monmouthshire; no other place called Llandegemman is known in South Wales, and it is certain that there is no other parish called Llangenau, either in Demetia or Siluria. Add to this, that the dialect of Breconshire and Carmarthenshire is nearly similar, while that of Glamor- ganshire and Monmouthshire is very different from that of the two first counties. tº a * From || Lib. 2. cap. 9. published by Wotton, London, 1730, B 4, 8 HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE, From the quotation just made from Hywel Dda, as well as from his conduct towards Morgan hén, or the old, who was king or prince of Glamorgan at the same time that Hywel governed Dyfed as well as Gwynedd, it seems clear that the latter potentate considered Ystradyw as part of his dominions; and he and his successors always possessed it, until it was taken from them by the Norman invaders, on the conquest of Brecon, and though his evidence cannot be said to be perfectly disin- terested, he must be allowed to have had more and better information upon the subject, than we can now possess; we find him publicly asserting his right in his book of laws, compiled by the wisest men of his day, among whom was the archdeacon of Landaff, and we know he enjoyed the whole of Breconshire as part of Dyfed, without interruption, unless the entry in the Liber Landavensis is entitled to implicit credit; but before that is admitted, it must be examined and considered, and we shall then perhaps discover that it is impossible it can be correct. Cradoc of Llan- carvan, though a Glamorganshire man, and a monk, certainly paid no attention to it, although he, as well as his translator, Powel, must have seen it: the public, however, shall hear the story, and those who feel themselves interested in the question, may decide upon it. • - “| Be it known to all the people of Britain, that there are seven cantreds (or hundreds) in the lordship and bishoprick of Morganwg; the first is Cantreff Bychan; the second, Gower and Cydweli; the third, Gorwenit; the fourth, Cantreff Penuchen; the fifth, Gwentilwg and Edeligion; the sixth, Gwent is coed; and the seventh, Gwent uwch coed. Ystradyw and Ewyas are called the two sleeves of Gwent uwch coed. When Edgar was king in England, and Hywel Dda, the son of Cadell, was prince of South Wales, which was one of the three kingdoms into which that country was divided, Morgan hēn reigned in peace over all Morganwg, until Hywel Dda endeavoured to deprive him of Ystradyw and Ewyas. When Edgar heard this, he sent to Hywel Dda and Morgan hén, and Owen his son, and desired them to come to his court at London, and he heard the story, and the dispute which was between them; whereupon it was determined by the lawful judgment of his court, that Hywel Dda had wrongfully dispossessed Morgan hén and Owen his son, and therefore it was adjudged that Hywel Dda should give up Ystradyw and Ewyas for ever. Afterwards king Edgar granted and gave to Owen the son of Morgan hēn, Ystradyw and Ewyas, within the bishoprick of Llandaff; and confirmed them to him and his heirs by instruments in writing, attested by all the archbishops, bishops, earls and barons of England and Wales; a curse was denounced upon any one who should attempt to deprive the parish of Teilaw of these lands, and a blessing invoked on all those who should thereafter contribute to preserve them to the lawful owner. .* * • Thus | Myfyrian Archaeology, vol. 3. p. 612. London, 1801. HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE, 9 Thus did Edgar, and the record of the proceedings is kept in the chapter house of Landaff.”” º -- Not a tittle do we hear of this now famous award, made in the presence of all the archbishops, bishops, earls and barons of England and Wales, in the English, any more than in the Welsh histories, and unluckily for the credit of the Cwtta Cyfarwydd, there is a small anachronism, which will perhaps consign it to “the family vault of all the Capulets.” Hywel Dda died A. D. 958, and Edgar did not begin his reign *till 959, so that the truth probably was, that an old dispute between the bishops of Landaff and Saint David's was revived sometime in the tenth century, and the monk who related it, not satisfied with asserting the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the see of Landaff over Ystradyw and Ewyas, called in the help of Edgar, and proceeded to maintain the temporal power of his prince, in order to secure more effectually his support when it should be wanted. . I will only add a few words more and then proceed to take a hasty tour round the county of Brecon, and mark its boundary, as it is now known. A Latin MS. in the Cottonian library, (Domitian A. 1. Fo. 13, 157) is styled Cognacio Brychan unde Brechenawc dicta est, Pars Demetice. This writing, which appears from the spelling, as well as some other circumstances, to be as old as the reign of Hywel Dda, if not older, is an additional proof that we have been wrongfully classed among the Silures, and that antiently we were considered to be in the same province with Pembrokeshire, Cardiganshire and Carmarthenshire; and to which, with Baxter, I think, Radnorshire or at least the greatest part of it, ought to be added. - - $. Brecknockshire, is bounded on the East by Monmouthshire and Herefordshire; on the North, by Radnorshire; on the North West, by Cardiganshire, on the West, by Carmarthenshire and on the South, by Glamorganshire and part of Monmouthshire. To describe its boundary, I begin Eastward, where a small brook called Baiden falls into the Usk on the South side of that river; follow the same downwards in the middle of the river, until the conflux of another brook on the North, called Gwen- - - - ffrwd : *This is a translation of a copy of the Liber Lań- this claim of the princes of Gwent extended, davensis; the original I have never been able to Ystradyw is now supposed to comprize the hundred procure a sight of. This document is called Cwtta of Crickhowell only; but the word imports the vale Cyfarwydd Forganwg, a briefstatement of the rights of Usk, or the vale of water. This squabble may of Morganwg. Edgar gave the lands in dispute to therefore have related only to the lands about Aber. the bishoprick of Landaff; the word in the British, is gavenny, where the reguli of Breconshire having the parish of Landaff. In the early ages of christian- unjustifiably pushed their boundaries too far East- ity, what we now call the cathedral, was the only ward, prevented the communication of the Gwen. thurch in the diocese. Kenwet’s case of impropriati- stians with Ewyas and Erging, in Herefordshire. wns. After all, it is extremely uncertain how far - || Gloss. Auctore. Gulmo. Baxter. Sub verb. Demeta. C to HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE, frwd: up this rivulet, proceeding North or North East, having Llanwenarth in Monmouthshire, on the right, and i langeney in Breconshire on the left. Cross the turnpike road from Abergavenny to Brecon, where there is a shire stone placed between Sunny Bank and a farm house, called from its situation, Cydiad y ddwy shire, or the boundary of the two counties, up to the source of the Gwenffrwd, on. the North side of the Sugar Loaf hill. From thence, crossing the mountain in a direction rather more to the East, but leaving the high summit to the right, we come to a brook called Cwmbwch or Nant yffin ; pursue the course of this brook downwards. to its fall into the Grwyne fawr; up the middle of that river, Llanbedr in Breconshire, on the left, and Llanwenarth. and afterwards Llandilo-Pertholeu, in Monmouthshire, on the right, until we come to a bridge on the road leading from Llanvihangel Cilcornel to Crickhowel, called the Coal-pit road: proceeding still Northward up along Grwyne fawr ; Partrishaw, Breconshire, on the left, Llandilo-Pertholeu, Monmouth- shire, on the right, we come to a small brook, called Nantadu, which falls on the Monmouthshire side into the Grwyne, near a blacksmith's shop, where the insulated hamlet of Ffwddog, in Cwmyoy,” Herefordshire, is on the right. Here recross the Grwyne to half the river; proceed upwards in the same direction Northwards to a bridge, called Pont-yscub, (correctly Pont-Escob, or the bishop's bridge). upon the road leading from Partrishaw to Cwmyoy: Partrishaw, on the left, Cwmyoy, Herefordshire, on the right. Still along the Grwyne upwards, when a brook called. Nant y fin falls in on the West, which brook divides Partrishaw from the hamlet of Grwyne fawr in Talgarth, and the hundred of Crickhowel from the hundred of Talgarth in Breconshire. Afterwhich, Sychnant, Brwynant, Cwmddoinant, and Cwm-, nant y bedd brooks fall in upon the Western or Breconshire side: cross Grwyne fawr. where Cwmnant Trethin falls in on the East ; proceed up this brook in a direction. Eastward, having Talgarth, Breconshire, on the North, and Cwmyoy, Monmouthshire, on the South : pass over a hill, called the Van, turning towards the North to a river called Honddu, where we have Cwmyoy, Monmouthshire, again on the right : along the Honddu to Cappely fin, from thence to a cottage near the confluence of two brooks; one rising on the Western or Breconshire side, and the other on the Eastern : follow the latter up the Hatterell hills, to a spot where a third prill rises, which falls into the Olchon, in the parish of Clodock, until the source of this third priil, where however there is no boundary, mere stone, or mark; Cwmyoy in Monmouth- shire, afterwards Clodock, Herefordshire, on the right, and Llanigon, Breconshire, on the left: proceed from this spot Northward, along the brow or summit of the hill. on the Herefordshire side, to a place called Rhyw'r Daram, where there is a mere. stone. * All the maps of Herefordshire and Monmouthshire, hitherto published, have erroneously placed the Ffwddog, as surrounded by Breconshire, instead of Monmouthshire. *~– HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. 11 stone called Careg Lwyd, being the bounday between Llanigon and Hay, Brecon- shire, on the right, the latter of which parishes continues along the boundary on that side, 'till the Dulas empties itself into the Wye; excepting only a mill, and two meadows, insulated within the Hay parish, called Llangwaithan mill and meadows, but which are part of Llanigon. - - From Carreg Lwyd we proceed down the hill in a North Easterly direction to a cottage, called Syke's cottage, where another prill rises and divides Clodock and Cusop parishes in Herefordshire; the latter of which follows the boundary on the Herefordshire side to the Wye. Along the prill above mentioned, called Creigieu brook, we come to its fall into the Dulas; the boundary to its conflux into the Wye, near Hay : here turn, and proceed Westward up the middle of the latter river, which is the boundary between Radnorshire on the North and Breconshire on the South, for three or four miles: Clyrow and Llowes parishes on the right, upon the left, Hay: about a few hundred yards above or South Westward of Llowes church, Radnorshire, cross the Wye and the turnpike road leading from Brecon to Hay, between two farms, called Ffordd fawr and Llwyne bach, but nearer to the latter: from thence we proceed about half a mile from the river Wye, in a Southerly direction: then turn, and proceed for the like distance from East to West; turn almost angularly from South to North, proceed in that direction by Glazbury churchyard, leaving this church a few yards, and that part of the parish which is in Radnorshire all the way to the left. Recross the turnpike road to Brecon, and thro’ the great meadows, called the Stonces, into the middle of the river Wye, which now becomes the boundary between Brecon- shire and Radnorshire, until the conflux or fall of the Elan, about two miles below Rhayader. - - , From the place where the boundary line returns to the Wye, near Glazbury, we have the hamlet of Pipton, then the parishes of Llyswen, Crickadarn, Gwenddwr, (on the Western boundary or confines of which last parish, we quit the hundred of Talgarth, and enter the hundred of Builth), Alltmawr, Llanddewi'r cwm, Llanfair in Builth, Llanvihangel-bryn-pabuan, Llysdinam, and Llanwrthwl, in Breconshire, On the left or South, and on the other, or N orthern side, Glazbury, Boughrwd, Llandilo- graban, Aberedw, Llanfareth, Llanelwedd, Disserth, Llanyre, and Llanvihangele helygen, in Radnorshire, . • . - - From the fall of the Elan into the Wye, we quit the latter river and proceed up the middle of the former, in a direction nearly from East to West,’till it receives the - Claerwen : up this river, turning a little towards the South, 'till the Brwyno falls in, running nearly from North to South. Follow this river to its source, near which it receives a supply from the lake of Llyngynnon, in Cardigan shire: Llanddewi brevi, in C 9 . . . . .* W . that 13 - HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. that county, all this while on the right, and Llanddewi abergwessin, in Breconshire, on the left. From the source of the Brwyno, proceed from North West to South East, for about three miles along a wet bog (where the boundary line is not precisely ascertained) to the Tawe, not far from its source, follow this river downward 'till it runs opposite to and near Ystrad y fin. From the Tawe, near Ystrady fin, we come - to the top of Hirgwm ; here we have Llanfair ary brin, Caermarthenshire, on the right and Llanwrtyd, Breconshire, on the left. Down Hirgwm, proceeding South East, to a common called Llwydlo fach, in the same direction to Cwmcrychan; thence to the source of the river Gwenol, which follow to its fall into the Gwydderig. Up this river, turning from West to South East, until we come opposite to a brook running into it, on the Southern side, about four miles and a half from Trecastle, in Breconshire, called Nanty meirch; which trace upward from North to South West. Turn near a white stone to the Westward, leaving this stone in Caermarthenshire; cross the old turnpike road over Trecastle mountain to Llandovery, to Cors Pendaulwyn; then to a brook, called Henwen; down the same in a course nearly from West to East, 'til it falls into the Usk. Up the Usk, turning from North to South East, to its source between the two Vans or Bannau; thence South South East to the river Twrch, which follow in nearly the same direction 'till it empties itself into the Tawe. From Llwydlofach to Gwydderig, we have Tyryrabad, or Llandulas, in the hundred of Builth, and afterwards, Llandilo'r fån, in the hundred of Merthyr, in Breconshire, on the left, and Llanfair ary bryn, Caermarthenshire, on the right. From the fall of Nanty meirch into the Gwydderig, we have the parish of Llywel in the hundred of Devynnock, in Breconshire, on the left, and Myddfe and Llanddoisant parishes, in Caermarthenshire, on the right, and from the spot where wereach the Tawe downwards to its fall, the parish of Llanguke or Llanguik, Glamorganshire, adj oins on the right, and Ystradgynlais, Breconshire, on the left. Upon coming to the Tawe, we proceed u pward along the middle of the river from West to East, to Abercynlais: then cross a common called Cefny brin, Southwards to Nanty quarrel; then to Bryn y rhedin, near Goitre Genffordd y Drain, and so to a brook, called Nanty Pebyll Bedw: thence to the river. Dulas, along which to Corslwyn du; from thence to the river Pyrddin, which follow in a direction from West to East to its fall into the Neath, which unites itself with the Mellte, at Pontneathfechan. From the fall of the Twrch into the Tawe, to the meeting of the streams of the Neath,and the Mellte, we have Llanguke and Cadoxtone parishes, Glamorganshire, on the right, and Ystradvellte, Breconshire, on the left, From Pontneathvechan a few yards below. the bridge, we proceed up the Mellte, having the hamlet of Rhygoes, in the parish of Ystradyvodog, Glamorganshire, on the right, and Ystradwellte, on the left, until we come to Dinas rock, in Penderin, | - is. HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. 13. in Breconshire: here we cross the Mellte, and proceed from North to South up a brook, called Sychryd: then cross the Cynon river, a little above Hirwain furnace; Penderin, on the left, and Aberdare parish, in Glamorganshire, on the right; down the Cynon, 'till a brook, called Nant hir falls into it on the North or North Eastern side; which trace upwards, proceeding from South West to North East, 'till we come to another brook, called Pistill Nant y derin: then to a brook, called Nanty frwd, which follow to its fall into the Taaffawr, a little above Coed y cymer. Follow the Taaf downwards, ’till it receives Taaffechan on the North: here cross the former river where we have Wainor, in the hundred of Penkelley, in Breconshire, on the left, and on the right, Merthyr Tidvil, Glamorganshire. At the fall of the Taaf fechan, or lesser Taaf, turn from South to North, and proceed up this river to three stones in the river, called Yr hen steppau, about 300 yards below Pontsticcill: here cross the river, and from thence we come in a direction from East to West to Bwlch issa, then to Castell y nos, them to Pwll morlais, thence to Pwll Ilwch mere, thence to Carny clyn dwr, thence to Carn helig, and from thence to Rhyd y milwyr. From Taaffechan, we have Llanddetty, Breconshire, on the left and Merthyr Tidvil, and Gellygare, Glamorganshire, on the right. - - At Rhyd y Milwyr, or the soldiers' ford, upon the brook called Nanty milwyr, the lordship and hundred of Penkelley, and of Tretower, in the hundred of Crickhowel, in Breconshire, and the lordship of Sanghenydd, in Glamorganshire meet near the source of the Romney or Rhymny; which river follow downwards nearly from West to East, for 568 perches, where the counties of Brecon and Monmouth unite, at the fall of a brook called Nantmelin into the Rhymny; near this spot, (in Breconshire.) iron works have been lately erected: Nantmelin divides Llangynider, in Breconshire, from Bedwellte, in Monmouthshire: proceeding up this brook North East for 144 perches, we cross overit, and continue our course North Eastward for two hundred perches more; having the lordship of Coed meredith, on the right hand, until we come to the source of a brook, called Nanty bwch; down this brook, 'till it falls into the Sorwy or Sirhowy, where we have Llangunider, in Breconshire, on the left, and Bedwellte, still on the right. From Sirhowy, proceed Eastward to the river Ebwy fawr, which cross by a cottage, called John Goodluck's : here we have a very small spot of ground on the South or South Eastern side, in Breconshire. Then down the middle of the river Ebwy fawr to Blán Ebwy, where we have Beaufort iron works close - upon the boundary line, on the left in Breconshire: from thence, follow the stream quite round the works; then proceed to Gwar y Cae coal works; then to the outside ef Wain dew, where we have Aberystruth, Monmouthshire, on the right; and Llangattock, on the left: from thence to Carreg y fin, to Carreg Wain y Bwlch, to - Carreg, 14 - HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE, - Carreg croes blán y Llammarch, to Pound y Wainwen, to Carreg cefn carn yr erw, io Blån Dâr fawr, to Carreg Maén y Tarw, to Carreg clawdd y myyn, to Carreg Pen Garn lwyd, to Carreg Pen rhyw winau, to a mountain ash, to Beddy gwr hir, to Pwll. Carreg and from thence down the brook Baiden to its fall into the Usk, where this tour commenced ; having Llanelly, Breconshire, on - the left, and Llanwenarth, Monmouthshire, on the right. * . . . Within this circle, (for such it nearly is, except on the North Eastern and South Western boundary, which is elongated and protrudes about four or five miles at each point), are contained 800 square miles, or 512,000 acres of land; and 300 acres of water, besides the space occupied by rivers and brooks. | This county is a radius of thirty miles; in the center of which, as nearly as art or design could place it, (tho’ it may be doubted whether it is to be attributed to either), is situated the town of Brecknock; from whence the traveller, proceeding along either of the four main roads, intersecting the county, andleading to Monmouthshire, Carmarthenshire, Radnorshire or Herefordshire, finds himself on the confines of the county of Brecon at the end of fifteen miles, and the same thing may be said, as to the distance from Brecon towards Merthyr Tidvil, in Glamorganshire, on the South, altho’ the present road has rather increased it, by taking a circuitous sweep to avoid the inequalities and other natural difficulties of the old one. - The population S of this county, from the returns made to parliament in 1802, may be estimated at 32,300. From these documents, it appears that the inhabitants then consisted of 31,633; but the regular and supplementary militia, amounting to 500 men, being then out of the county, and those in the army and navy, not being included, they may be fairly. said to exceed 32,000. This population has varied of course here, as it has in all other counties, at different periods. At the beginning of the 17th century, when there was a consi- derable manufacture in woollen cloths in Brecon, and the neighbourhood, there are reasons to believe, that the inhabitants were much more numerous than after the . . . . . . . . . , • restoration. *These are the boundaries of the present county of Brecon; but there are strong reasons for supposing that in very early ages, and particularly in the time of Brychan Brycheiniog, (who will soon be intro- duced to the reader), Garthmadryn, or the posses- sions over which this prince ruled, were of consider- ably greater extent to the Westward. At Dyffryn Cydrych, in the parish of Llanddoisant, in Carmar- thenshire, were formerly considerable ruins and excavations, called Llys Brychan, or the court of Brychan, where this regulus probably resided occa- sionally : and if so, I conceive his territory compre- hended the whole of the country on the East side of the Towy, as far down as Llandilo fawr, from whence the boundary line crossed Southward to Llandebie, and followed the Loughor to its fall into the sea. This will account for the claim and pos- session of Gower, by the descendants of Bernard Newmarch, who supposed they had a right to all the lands of which they had robbed Bleddin ap Maenarch. - - |Clarke's General view of the Agriculture of the county of Brecon; published by the Board of Agricul- ture in 1794. 831 Square miles, or 467 according to Smith's maps. See Gent. Mag. for July, 1804, § Appendix, No. iii. - HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE, is festoration. In 157 3,.] returns were made, in obedience to a commission from the archbishop of Canterbury, by which we find that the population of Breconshire thea amounted to about 14000. Since that time, we see they have increased to more than double the number. Both the tables, (that formed from the returns in 1673, and that from those of 1809) may be confided in and are as nearly correct as the course of human affairs will permit: for it is impossible to be precisely accurate on this subject. But the calculations from the parish registers, which was the mode - resorted to, prior to the passing of the act of 41 George 3d, directing those returns to be made, were extremely fallacious. I have taken the trouble of minu- ting down the aggregate number of births and burials, from the transcripts of the registers of this county returned into my office for the last 100 years; littleinformation is to be derived from them, in this respect. From a table of this kind, inserted in the appendix, § it should seem that the population in this county was decreasing in the years 1800 and 1801. Those years were certainly sickly, the seasons unhealthy, and the bread then eaten, extremely bad, which, of course, occasioned disorders, and an extraordinary mortality: but I doubt. very much, whether it can be safely inferred - from thence, that the number of births during those periods, was not equal to many of the preceding years. The increase of the set of anabaptists accounts in some measure for the deficiency apparent in the registers, and there are many other causes to which it may be attributed, too tedious to be here discussed, tho’ they may form - a subject of inquiry hereafter. . . . . . . . . . . . . The principal riversin this county, are the Wye, the Usk, the Irvon and the Tawe. The Taafalso rises in this county, but it does not become considerable 'till it receives. the lesser Taaf, and enters Glamorganshire. The Wye, with a trifling exception at Glazbury, (as has been seen) washes the Northern boundary of this county, and divides it from Radnorshire for thirty-three or thirty-four miles in length, when it enters Herefordshire, near Hay and afterwards falls into the Severn below Chepstow. in this river are found salmon, trout, graylings, pike, perch, last-springs, Samlet, or salmon pink, chub, dace, loach, gudgeons, eels, lampreys, roaches, bullheads, minnows, shad, cray fish, and muscles. The salmon and the pike of this river, are remarkably * good. The trout are notin equal estimation amongst epicures: the flesh is white, and they have neither the firmness, colour, or flavour of those of the Usk. It is remark- able, that the cray fish or fresh water lobster is found in many brooks running into the Wye; but seldom, if ever in those which fall into the Usk or the Irvon. Many unsuccessful attem pts have been made to remove them into the rivers of Caermarthen- shire and Glamorganshire and even into some brooks communicating with the Irvon, #Appendix, No, I, § Appendix, No. II, Y- ... ', ió HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. which empties itself into the Wye; but when thus conveyed, they soon disappear; they are not found dead, nor is the shell ever seen; they, consequently either emigrate, (OI are destroyed and totally devoured by the indigenous inhabitants of the stream, to which they are thus unnaturally introduced and who perhaps dislike the company of these intruders. The sewin, (a fish in high estimation in part of South Wales) is not found in any of the rivers of Breconshire, except the Tawe. And here another observation occurs, tho’ perhaps it has seldom if ever been attended to. T he sewin is not seen in any river running in this county from East to West, but in all those flowing in a contrary direction, as the Teivi, the Towey, in Carmarthenshire and Cardiganshire and the Neath, the Avon, the Ogmore and other rivers. I leave this circumstance to the natural philosopher to account for; the fact is, as I have stated. - .* - In the Usk, the same fish are caught as in the Wye, except the pike, the grayling, the perch, the gudgeon, the cray fish and the muscle: but this river is celebrated principally for its trout, which certainly is equal in flavour to any in the kingdom; it is in season from the beginning of March to the middle of July, and if not destroyed by poachers, who take them at almost every period in the year, and of all sizes, and particularly with a kind of a net called a perch net, which is suspended upon a long pole, by means of horn rings and is used in the night, they would form a much more abundant, and of course a cheaper article of food, for a fourth of the year; but the pernicious and infamous practice of throwing unslaked lime into brooks, where it is known they resort to deposit their spawn, destroys them by myriads and does more mischief than can be well calculated, at the same time that the fish thus killed are scarcely eatable. Geraldus Cambrensis, speaking of Breconshire, says,| “fluvialibus quoque Piscibus abundat quos hinc Osca inde Vaga ministrat; Salmonibus etiam et Trutis utraque, * sed plus illis Vaga plus istis Osca fecunda est.” In this, as in most other instances (when he has not a miracle in view) he is perfectly correct; how highly then are we indebted to Providence, who has formed in our rivers these abundant store houses for our use ! The benefits are obvious; but sufficient care is not taken to preserve and multiply the advantages which we might derive from so plenteous a source. We have seen and felt years of scarcity and are continually complaining of the high prices of provisions, at the same time that the ocean - . . . . • - , which || Itin. I. 1. cap. 2. - * “And there is salmons in both” says Fluellin. Was Shakspeare thinking of Ger. Cambrensis's des. cription of Breconshire, when he put this speech in the mouth of a character supposed to be of that: eounty - - - HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. - 17 which surrounds our shores offers a never failing supply to our wants, and our rivers may considerably contribute to the same purpose; yet man, weak and erring man, - either neglects to use or endeavours to intercept the bounties of his Creator and to preventhis fellow creatures from participating in the blessings he bestows upon them, foreigners, either more necessitous or more attentive to their interest, are permitted to avail themselves of our indolence and to deprive us of those riches, which industry might make our own , while our rivers are obstructed with weirs to prevent us from . receiving a supply evidently intended for the general good of the inhabitants of those lands thro' which they flow, and this in order to produce or promote a - monopoly.” The salmon are induced to ascend rivers for three purposes, f safety from the porpus and other marine adversaries, in search of food or to deposit their spawn ; in the two first cases, the fish are in general active and healthy, and the flesh is, of course, firm and palatable, or (as it is called) in season. In this state, they frequently during floods in the spring and early part of the summer, travel to an amazing distance from the ocean in pursuit of their food, which is most abundant at this time of the year, consisting principally of the young of the trout and other fresh water fishes, as well as insects; if the salmon however, are obstructed when they quit the sea from either of these first mentioned motives, a very small obstacle drives them back again, and they perhaps never return. I say return, because it is very well known that the same fish always frequent the same rivers, and even the young fry are partial to the stream which first conveyed them to the sea. This is one among many of the serious mischiefs occasioned by these weirs, independant of the opportunities they afford the proprietors of increasing the scarcity and raising the prices at their pleasure; but this is not the only mode which the selfishness of man has discovered to lessen the stores graciously sent him by the merciful Giver of all good things : the fish coming up to spawn are not deterred by ordinary difficulties, or prevented from their purposes by trifling impediments; it is indeed wonderful to relate or consider what obstacles they will surmount to accomplish the great end of nature; but when they have made their way against the swiftest currents, and even - - {. . successfully and a satisfaction made to the proprietors by the inhabitants of the parishes in the neighbourhood * I would not be understood here to quarrel with the rights of fishery in the possession of individuals which they are clearly and legally intitled to enjoy as freely and fully as any other species of property, but merely to submit it to the consideration of the legislature whether it would not be for the good of the community, that all weirs should be abolished, f The fish are also infested with vermin at certain Seasons, whic into fresh water. thro' which the rivers run, empow the same time that the streams ering them, at - are free to all, under certain regulations, to punish those who may be detected in taking the fish with destructive nets. or engines and at improper seasons. . hit is said they get rid of upon coming D 18 HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE, • . successfully resisted the force of cataracts, they are still frequently unable to escape ~. from man, their greatest and most indefatigable adversary. Upon their approaching the source of rivers where the stream is shallow or diminished, their pursuer watches them near a narrow gully, and either in the day time, or by burning a bundle of straw at night, by the light of which they are attracted, strikes them with a spear formed for this purpose, and drags them from their element at a time when the flesh is nauseous, if not unwholesome; altho' the death of a single fish is frequently attended with the destruction of millions in embryo, who would otherwise have contributed to the common stock of the adjacent country. It is true it may be said, that there are at present laws against their destruction in this manner and at this season of the year; but these laws are become a dead letter, the unthinking peasant laughs at those penalties which he knows will never be enforced, and while the law sleeps, claims a right to exercise that avocation which good sense and sound policy, aS well as the ordinance of the legislature prohibits. A few words more upon this subject and it is concluded; probably it will not be generally considered as of that serious import it deserves, but at a time when an additional number of mouths is introduced - into the country and the neighbourhood,” few if any of whom raise the twentieth part of the fruits of the earth they consume; any hint tendin g to promote the i ncrease of provisions is of consequence and ought to be attended to. In the county of Brecon may be found at least 1000 acres of land which either are or may be covered with water at a trifling expence and which are unfit for the general purposes of agriculture; the number of brooks intersecting it in all directions and the quantity of water they convey is, amply sufficient for forming a reservoir or pond in almost every farm within this district, which if stocked with fish would furnish a ready supply for the tables of private families or for sale in the public markets, and yet none of our farmers and few of our gentry seem to be fully sensible of these advantages: it is surely unnecessary - - to point them out or to observe at how cheap a rate they may be obtained and secured; they lack neither labour or manure and the husbandman derives from them a never failing annual crop without the trouble of sowing or the expence of seed. Surely then I may be permitted to recommend to my countrymen that they would avail themselves of those capabilities (not every where attainable) of adding to their stores and multiplying their resources, when this end can with so much facility be promoted and with so little difficulty be preserved. + . - This county is intersected on the North and South by two long ranges of mountains, the one goes by the general name of Epynt, f an obsolete British word for a hill, an . . - -. . ascent. * In the Iron Manufactories. t The Irvon has nearly the same fish as the Wye, # Epping forest in Essex, is Epynt, anglicised or corrupted. HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. 19 ascent or slope: it begins on the West, on the confines of Carmarthenshire, terminates on the East at Llyswen in Breconshire and divides for the greatest part of the line the hundred of Builth from the remainder of the county. The district called Gwlad Fualit or the country of Builth lies on the Northern side of Epynt; the upper or Western part antiently belonged to the princes of Dinas ſawr, IłOW Dinevor, and in 1164 was granted by Rhys ap Griffith to the abbey of Strata Florida or Ystradiñur in Cardiganshire, and the vale of Irvon as well as the Cwm or dingle thro' which the Wheffi runs, together with the lands bordering on the Wye, were at different times parcel of the possessions of the princes of Fferreg,” Fferregs, or Fferlex, the princes of Powis and the lords of Elveſ: it was not 'till long after the conquest by Bernard Newmarch that it was considered as part of Brecknockshire. Phillip de Breos was the first lord of Brecknock who united this tract, which he acquired by conquest, to those dominions he possessed in right of his wife, yet it was afterwards frequently dissevered from them by the Mortimers, and sometimes it formed part of the lordship of Melenydd in Radnorshire: nature indeed seems to have placed a formidable barrier between it and the more Southern parts of the county, from which it differs materially in soil and considerably in climate. The soil of those parts adjoining Caermarthen- shire and Cardiganshire, consisting of what is commonly called mountain land, is mostly peat and full of bogs, while that of the vales is argillaceous and has some resemblance in colour to the bark of an ash, the remainder of Breconshire is a reddish sand or sandy loam upon a substratum of gravel, and wants a due proportion of clay to render it sufficiently tenacious for the general purposes of vegetation; and the atmosphere of Builth'ſ which is much higher, is of course colder than the greatest part of the hundreds of Talgarth, Merthyr, Penkelley and Crickhowel, The other range of mountains, dividing Glamorganshire and afterwards Monmouth- shire from Breconshire, commences on the West with Banmau Shir-Gaer, or the - Caermarthenshire beacons, from whence they run in a line nearly parallel with the Epynt hills, tho' inclining as they proceed more towards the South, and terminate in Monmouthshire; having the vale of Usk on the North. Along this bleak and otherwise barren tract of high ground runs a vein of limestone, the course of which is minutely and accurately described in a curious old M.S. lately published in the second volume of the Cambrian Register, supposed to have been written by - t . . * . George * Rhosſferreg, now called Rhosſerig in Llanvi- f The neighbourhood of the town of Builth must hangel-bryn-pabuan, was one of the mansions of here beexcepted, for near that place and from thenceſ Ełystan Glodrydd, prince of F ferreg, in 1010, and downward on the banks of the Wye, vegetation is is now the property of one of his lineal descendants. as forward as in any part of the county, D 2 20. HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE, * George Owen, esq.” The lime is first discovered in Pembrokeshire, it then crosses Caermarthenshire and enters Breconshire on the West at Twyn melyn, in the hamlet of Palleg, in the parish of Ystradgynlais, from thence it proceeds Eastward to Cribarth, Penwyll or Pannau and to Carnau Gwynnion, in Ystradfellte, soon after which it. trends to the South East with the mountains, leaves the Brecknock beacons to the North, is again seen in Glyn-collwm. and Pen-rhiw-calch and afterwards in Lla addetty, Llangynidr, Llangattock and Llanelly, when it enters into Monmouthshire. Upon ur approach to this latter county, we have in Brecknockshire the vein of coal which supplies us principally as well as part of Radnorshire with that article; to convey which, a canal has been lately cut to the town of Brecon, and in the neighbourhood of these collieries, iron works have been established and are continually increasing, but these subjects will be more properly treated upon when I come to the description of the places or parishes where they are situated. - - Between the two ridges of mountains thus hastily travelled over, a third commences abruptly, at or near Talgarth, and is known in different places by the names of the Black mountains, in Brecknockshire and the Hatterell hills, in Herefordshire. From these another line branches across in, a direction from North to South about eight miles below Brecon, dividing the hundred of Crickhowel from the hundreds ofTalgarth and Penkelley. In that portion of the county lying Eastward of this hill, the air is perceptibly milder and vegetation more forward than on the Western side of the pass called Bwlch; it is however remarkable that tho’ the quantity of rain falling in Brecon is nearly double that which falls in London in the same space of time, yet the atmos- phere there is not much colder than that of the metropolis, tho' rather more variable. The great excess of rain || observable on a comparison with a London meteorological journal may be easily accounted for, by the vicinity of Brecon to the Southern range of hills, and particularly to the Bannau Brecheiniog. The great height of the beacons frequently intercepts the clouds charged with watery particles in their passage from the South or South West, from whence the rainy wind generally blows; thus separated or dispersed they descend in * . g rain, * Lord of Kemeys in Pembrokeshire; he lived in the 17th century and left several MSS. behind him : after tracing the vein of limestone from Pembroke- shireintô Caermarthenshireandsointo Breconshire, he brings it from Blancollwm to Llangrwyne, “ where it crosses the Usk to Tavarn Maeshir, fur- ther than which (says he) I have not learned the course of the said wayne,” I have availed myself of his assistance: I was in hopes indeed I should have been able to have treated this subject more accurately as well as scientifically, but the gentleman to whom I was referred refused the requested infor- mation, not merely with abruptness, but rudeness, from an apprehension (I presume) that I was endea- vouring to pilfer the secrets of his trade, in order to apply them to his prejudice, *-x | Appendix, No, IV. HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. 31 --" rain, and it must be admitted that when these mountains are covered with snow, we occasionally feel a" - » “The icy fang And churjish chiding of the winter's wind, Which bites and blows upon our bodies, Ev’n 'till we shrink with cold;” But these inconveniences (if such they be) are amply compensated for by the advantages we derive from them: the rough blast that sweeps their tops brings with it ruddy health into our vallies and dissipates or drives before it those pestilential exhalations or fumes, which either nature or the works or wants of mankind produce to the prejudice of animal life; hence epidemic disorders are seldom known, and never so fatal here as in large towns in England, and to these hills we may in a great measure attribute our protection from accidents by lightening, which are rarely heard of in their vicinity. Imagination can scarcely paint objects more sublime and picturesque than the three lofty peaks of those nearly precipitous elevations, and continued as they are by a long range of mountains, which is terminated by the conical Sugar-loaf near Abergavenny, they form such an outline as can only be described by the pencil; the reader therefore is referred to the sketch at the bottom of the map of the county, which precedes this chapter. * - • * t r * It may be necessary to be observed that the scale adapted to the map will not apply to the outline. ſ 22 J C HAPT ER. If, History of Brecknockshire, antiently called Garthmadryn, from the Invasion of the Romans, during their Stay in Britain and after their Departure, to the Reign and Death of Brychan Brecheiniog, about the Year of Christ 450. - - NYOTWITHSTANDING what has been said in the former chapter, concerning N the division of South Wales into Syllwg or Gwent and Dyfed, may seem sufficient, perhaps tedious to the reader, it is absolutely necessary, before I proceed to notice the Roman invasion of this country, to dwell a few minutes longer upon the same subject. From the authorities already mentioned, as well as several others which might be collected, it is clearly seen that the inhabitants of South Wales consisted of two several tribes, the one calling themselves by the names of Syllwyr, Essyllwyr or Gwen- hwyswyr, and the other Dyfedwyr or Gwyr Dyfed. The current tradition of a very remote period (which in this instance is intitled to nearly equal credit with historic documents) has conveyed to posterity the distinction and the difference of dialect, as well as manners, between the men of Gwent and Morganwg and those of Dyfed, in Breconshire and Caermarthenshire, at this day confirms the fact: but however well known this might have been to the natives, it is by no means clear that the early Roman authors were acquainted with the circumstance; on the contrary it will be evident that Tacitus and all other foreign writers before Ptolomy, describe the whole of South Wales as the country of the Silures. I will not now take upon me to determine, nor could it perhaps here pertinently be discussed, whether the British word Syllwyr travelled from Wales into England and from thence to Rome, where it became the parent of Silures, or whether the latter apellation was not immediately applied to this region by the Romans, upon their first bird's eye view from Malvern or some other commanding eminence on the borders of Wales, as peculiarly descriptive of the general appearance of the Southern part of the principality, at that time entirely covered with wood. - - Pliny, HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. - 23 , J Pliny, * speaking of Ireland, says it is distant only thirty miles from the country of the Silures; here it is clear that by the latter he meant Pembrokeshire, evidently part of Dyfed to every British reader. Tacitus t mentions only the Silurum Gens gº as conquered by Julius Frontinus, tho' it is certain that the greatest part of South Wales was overrun by that victorious commander. Mr. Pinkerton: conceives the term Silures to have been rather generic than confined; “the whole South of England (says he) was possessed by the Belge, save Devonshire and Cornwall, in which and in the South half of Wales dwelt the Silures, a numerous people in two nations; the Dumnonii Southmost and the Demetae in South Wales.” - “That the Dumnonii were Silures (continues he) appears clear from this, that Tacitus. says the Silures lived opposite to Spain and the Dumnonii were in fact the only people opposite to Spain: the chief of the Scilly islands is called Silura by Solinus’ and the present name seems to spring from it, besides the Silures are mentioned as a vast people, like the Belgae and Cimbri, and must of course have had various tribes, for if they were only one tribe in South Wales as supposed, Tacitus would not have mentioned them as a distinct race, for they would have been too minute for notice ;” we may therefore very fairly conclude with Mr. Pinkerton, that however the natives described and subdivided themselves; under the generic term Silures, the Roman historian meant when he spoke of the conquest by Frontinus, the whole circuit of South Wales or Deheubarth, the inhabitants of which uniting in one common cause and probably led on by one tywysog, leader or general en chef, were naturally enough. regarded and spoken of by foreigners as one people. The first Roman general, whom we know with any certainty to have penetrated into South Wales was Ostorius Scapula, who came into Britain in the year of Christ 51 ; for tho' his predecessor Plautius had several battles with Caradoc or Caractacus, yet whether Caractacus made incursions into what were then considered as the Roman territories, or was attacked in his own, does not appear, that he was a very troublesome neighbour is evident, for Tacitus|| says “non atrocitate non clementia mutabatur, quin bellum, excerceret castrisque legionum premendo foret.” For nine years did Caractacus with his half-armed, undisciplined and almost naked troops defy the veteran Roman legions, cased in armour and accustomed to victory. The author of Drych y prif Oesoedd, or the mirror of former times says, he fought thirty battles. and that tho’ he did not come off “with a whole skin.” in all of them, he acquired mucm. glory and great credit to himself for his personal valour, as well as his skill as a general; the Silures however under his conduct were unfortunately attacked and - - - w - . overpowered * Natural history, vol. 4. chap. 16. # Inquiry into the hist. of Scotland, vol. 1. p. 27. # Annal. Lib. 12, cap. 8. Wit. Agric, cap. 3. | Annal. Lib.2, cap. 8. º 24 HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE, overpowered by the Romans in Shropshire, in the neighbourhood of Knighton (as I conceive) and victory at last after a hardcontest declared in favor of the assailants, - by which the entry of Ostorius into South Wales was facilitated, tho' it by no means “effected an entire conquest. The writer * of the Welsh work.justmentioned, whose patriotism may be admired, tho’ his zeal cannot always be commended, speaking of Caractacus, says “Efe a ymgyrchodd naw mlynedd a holl gadernid Rufain, ac a allasai yindoppinaw eraill, oni bu'sei ei fradychu efgan langces ysgeler o'i wad ei hun a elwir Curtis fin-ddu. Ei araith tuag at annog ei sawdwyr, a gosod calon ynddynt, oedd at yr ystyr hyn; ‘byddwch bybur a merthol, O Frutaniaid! yr ‘ydymynymladd ym mhlaid yr achos goreu yn y byd; i amddiffyn ein gwlad a'n “heiddo an rhydd-did rhac Carn-Ladron a Chwiw-gwn. Atgofiwch wroldeb eich ‘teidau yn gyrru Iul Caesar ar flo; Caswallon, Tudur bengoch, Gronw gethin, ‘Rhydderch wynebglawr, a Madoc benfras.' - . Arol ei fradychu i dowylo ei elynion, fe a daycpwyd yn \ rhwym i Rufain, lle bu cymainto orfoledd a Llawenydd, a dawnsio a difyrrwch, oddal Caradocyngarcharwr, a phe buasid yn gorthtrechu gwlad o Gewri.” For nine years he opposed the whole force of the Romans, and he could have resisted them nine years longer if he had not been betrayed into their hands by a dirty drab (tho' one of his own country women) of the name of black-faced Curtist His address to encourage and inspirit his soldiers was to this effect; “Britons ! Be valiant. Be firm. We are fighting in the noblest cause in which we can be engaged in life: in defence of our country, in the protection of our property and for the preservation of our liberty against a horde of highwaymen and hirelings.: Call to mind the valour of your fore fathers Cassi- belaun, Tudor the red hair'd, Gronw the terrible, Roderick Broad-face and Madoc Stout-head, who made Julius Caesar turn his back upon our island.” When Caractacus was taken prisoner, he was sent bound to Rome, upon which event there was as much singing, rejoicing, dancing and merry making, as if a nation of giants had been conquered.” The speech of the unfortunate Briton before the emperor Claudius, is now so well known and has been so often repeated by . “, - the be supposed to be the very words delivered by the hero to his troops, “ vocabatdue nomina majorum” is the phrase of Tacitus. Curtis fün ddu, is a fan- ciful Wallicism for Cartismandua. * The Rev. Théophilus Evans, formerly vicar of Llangammarch, in Breconshire. The book was published at Shrewsbury; in 1740, and reprinted at Merthyr Tidvil, in 1803 : I give the quotation in his own language, because he has a remarkable pe- culiarity of style, which most of his countrymen admire. A -- f It is not nscessary to inform the Welsh reader that this is not a literal translation, any more than the speech of Caractacus as given by Mr. Evans, can -* # Chwiwgi or Whiwgi, of which Chwiwgwn is the plural, cannot be literally translated as it is here understood, but as nearly as it can be explained in English, it means a contemptible animal of the hu- man species, who comes and goes, fetches and carries, upon being whistled to.. HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE, 26 ** the English historians, as to become familiar to most readers; but it is very extraordinary, that not a syllable is mentioned in the Welsh chronicle of Tyssilio about this battle, or the hero who stood so high in the opinion even of his enemies. It is impossible to trace with any thing like accuracy, the rout of Ostorius after this engagement; much must depend upon conjecture, yet if that may be permitted, it should seem that he crossed over into Herefordshire and from thence into Caerleon in Monmouthshire, then through Glamorganshire along the sea coastandtheline where one branch of the J ulia Strata afterwards ran, to Caermarthen, and that he returned through Breconshire; in which case, he passed the scites of the stations, Magnis, Gobannium, Burrium, Isca Legionum, Bovium, Nidum, Leucarum, Maridunum or . Muridunum, Bannium or Bannio, now called Kentchester, Abergavenny, Usk, Caerleon, Boverton, Neath, Loughor, Caermarthen, Gaer, near Brecon, and also Gaer in Cwmdu, the Roman name of which is lost. In this circuit, he employed his cohorts either to repair, to fortify, or to erect some of these military strong holds on or near the scites of British camps, or else (as I am more inclined to believe) he must after the defeat of Caractacus, have crossed Radnorshire, from East to West, into the heart of Brecknockshire, by a British intrenchment then called Caer-van or Caer- bannau, where he built the station now called Gaer, and from thence he proceeded to Caermarthen ; further than this place (says Camden") Antoninus continues not his journey,t and further Westward I do not apprehend the Roman arms penetrated in the time of Ostorius, nor indeed for many years afterwards. From Caermarthen he turned Eastward through Glamorganshire to Caerleon, which then became the head quarters of the second legion, - - . . . . If this was the rout that Ostorius pursued; the road or line of communication between Gaer in Breconshire and Caerleon in Monmouthshire was not established, or the stations of Gaer in Cwmdu, Gobannium and Burrium erected till after this irruption into Wales; at the same time it is highly probable that most of the Roman fortresses in this county, were built during the life of this general; for we learn from Tacitus, * that he placed troops in them to defend his conquest, : who were afterwards attacked with such success by the inhabitants, that he bro . . " ke his heart when he perceived he was unable to compleat their subjugation. - z - -- . . Before - - . * Britannia. - + Richard of Cirencester, after Leucarum, (omit- . . . and perhaps Ariconium or Wroxeter, were not ting Muridunum) adds Vigessimum and Menapia, - - erected till the time of Suetonius Paulinus, or the supposed to be Narberth and Saint David's, but conquest of the Ordovices by Agricola, in the year these two latter stations were certainly not built in of Christ, 79, when they were raised to support and the time of Ostorius; and if his rout was that which protect the communications between the Roman I have laid down, the intermediate fortress of Bra- settlements in North and South Wales. - vinio and Magnis, or Kentchester and Ludlow, Annal. Lib, 12, cap. 8, E. * %3. HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE, Before I proceed to notice the oldest station in Breconshire admitted to be Roman, - the reader will excuse the digression, if I say a few words upon British fortresses; a subject so well and so learnedly discussed by Mr. King, in his first volume of “Monumenta antiqua,” that I should not have presumed to follow him, if fortune in recompense for the superior abilities he possesses had not bestowed upon me one advantage in which he is deficient: my countrymen will probably anticipate the observation I am about to make. The knowledge of the Welsh language (which inclination as well as residence in the country has induced and enabled me to attain) is so absolutely necessary to a traveller among British antiquities, that without it he cannot take three steps without the risk of breaking his neck. The want of this knowledge has actually occasioned the fall of the learned writer I have just named, though he will rise I make no doubt of it, with little or no injury: this defect has pre- cipitated him headlong in the beginning of his journey, from one of the highest hills in England: he proceeds to climb it with great caution ; looks to the right, then to the left, and after assigning various reasons why Malvern cannot be a Roman, a Danish, a Saxon, or a Norman entrenchment, he concludes that it is a British fortress, and the retreat of Owen Glyndwr ; in the latter conjecture, he is not supported by history or tradition, in the inference preceding he may in some measure be correct; because this naturally strong hold may have frequently served for the purpose of defence; but if he had been conversant in the British tongue, he would have known that the principal and earliest use to which the summit of this hill was appropriated was the assemblage of the Druids, when they acted in the three-fold capacities of legislators, priests and judges. Malvern, with very little alteration, is Moel y varn: these words are pure Welsh, and signify the high court or seat of judgment. The original British fortress was nothing more than an almost inaccessible or precipitous rock or natural wall; to these heights men were at first driven for safety from wolves and other wild beasts, when the country was thinly inhabited and the low-lands entirely covered with wood; thither they retired at night for rest, and from thence they sallied forth in the day time in search of food: these therefore were not originally intended so much for defence against man, as against the brute creation, though they were afterwards usedas stations, from whence they might more effectually annoy or with greater security resist the attacks of enemies of their own species. This most antient and always natural British fortification, was called Dinas–and here again I am sorry to observe, King has been mis-led by a Welshman; Dinas (says he, upon the authority of Rowland in his Mona antiqua) is derived from dinesu, from men's associating together. There is no such word in the Welsh language as dinesu-N esu, or as we write it in South W ales, nesau, is (it is true) to draw. history of BRECKNOCKSHIRE, ºr tear or to approach; but di-mesu, if the word could be justified, instead ofassociating or bandying, or rather banding together, would be to retire, to retreat, or disband. lofty fortification or strong hold. Dinas is derived from the old Celtic word Dún, pronounced nearly like Deen in English, and is frequently found in the names of places in Scotland; it signifies a *-* When the Dinas became too small for the family, it was necessary that part of them - should seek for other Dinasoedd; but as these impregnable rocks could not be every where met with ; still preferring elevated situations, they settled upon the Bannau or summits of hills; here however they were obliged to supply by their labour what nature had denied: as the approach to these situations was less difficult and conse- quently more liable to the incursions of an enemy, they found it prudent to protect themselves with high ditches or ramparts of earth and stone. The inclosures within these intrenchments were called Caer or Gaer, in the plural Caerau or Gaerau, from the verb Cau or Caued, to shut up, to inclose or surround with a fence, ditch or wall. For several centuries, the word Gaer has been most commonly applied to signify a military station or inclosure, but it is in many parts of Wales used synonymously with Cae, a field: thus in an humourous song attributed (I believe) to Lewis Morris, called Caniad Bugail Tregaron, or the song concerning the pastor of Tregaron: “Ac wrth eibwys y grynnai'r Ilawr, And the earth shook with his weight, Trwy Gaerau mawr Tregaron.” | As he ran o'er the large inclosures of Tregaron. So also in Edward Richard's Bugeilgerdd or pastoral: considered as the metropolis, or residence of the called Dinasoedd, (though they were no longer rock tywysog, the general or leader of the whole coun- fortresses) as Dinas Aberffraw, Dinas Marthrafael, try; thus for several centuries afterwards, we find Dinas Pengwern and Dinas fawr or Dinevor, “Maellawer unlliwus, erbywyn helbulus, Full oft the peasant's cheek we view, Naphrofibwyd blasus a melus i'r min, (Tho' poor his fare) of roseate hue; • * - A'ifythin di-foethau heb fel nagafalău. | What tho’ no dainties grace his board, Nachnaiyn ei Gaerau nag eirin :” | Norsloes or nuts his fields afford. * , Although no honey fills his hives, Nor near his cot the apple thrives; Content supplies his scanty store, • With ruddy health, nor seeks he more. One of these Caerbanmau” or hill intrenchments, is seen on an eminence, now corruptly called Benni, about two miles North West of Brecon, and about half a mile South East of the confluence of the Eskir into the Usk, * . .” ... W. The * when the Caerau increased, the Dinas was the courts of the princes of North and South Wales E2 g s HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE, The original name of this fortress must have been Caervan;" near to this camp, but still nearer to the fall of the Eskir into the Usk, the Romans erected a station, which from the British Ban, they called Bannio,f Castrum Bannii, or Bonium and Castrum Bonii. The genitive case of this latinized ' ' . . . British word produced the present name of Benni, by which the hill is now known; at its foot is a village softened according to a rule continually occurring and well understood in Welsh, into Venni, the modern name for Abergavenny, “Bomium Nidus and Abone : (says Horsley in his essay upon the Choro. grapher of Ravenna) must I doubt be fished $ out of the two names Jupannia and Albinunno, if we find them at all. —Isca and Bannio are doubtless Caerleon and Abergavenny, and Bannio put for Gobannio in the Itinerary.” Gently gently, good sir! a little scepticism is allowable upon this occasion. The Roman dress has certainly made a wonderful alteration in the appearance of . our Welsh ladies, and it must be admitted that those who have introduced them to us, have made them dance the hay in a very ridiculous manner: those however who have been brought up in the same school from infancy, may possibly be able to identify them even under their disguises, and may succeed (though with difficulty) in restoring them to their proper places, at least I trust the attempt will be . considered as commendable, Under Bannio therefor e, i. recognize the features of Ban, Bannau, Benni and Venni, as I do also of Go-bannau, the lower or lesser Bannau or Venni in Gobannio, which has un- dergone a still further state of disfiguration in Jupannia, supposed to be Caerdiff, by Mr. Baxter of happy conjecture, (as Mr. Harris, whether jocosely or seriously, I protest I am not able to discover, most happily calls him): Baxter, indeed, has bestowed upon us so much learning, so much Greek, so much Latin, and so much knowledge of the religions and languages of the Armenians, and, the - Aºgyptians, and the Teutones, - and the - Samothracians, &c. &c.; and above all, has introduced so many happy conjectures to demonstrate that * I use the where to accommodate the eyes and dictionary and other publications, is endeavouring ears of my English readers, the modern way of to restore the o, which certainly was in use in the writing this word is Caerfan, tho’ Mr. Owen in his 13th century. ~ * f Anonymous Chorography of Ravenna. , f Horsley's Brit. Rom. Lib. 3. nym orography - + Horsley's Brit . . . -- § I would not recommend any one to try for is ten to one, that if heis an unskilful angler, he may them, unless he is a staunch etymological sports- throw for a week and not catch either a Bomium, man, and knows how to bring Jour from dies, as it a Nidus, or an Abone. . | He was a prebendary of Landaff, and curate of Caerau, in Glamorganshire, in the last century; he appears to have been a man of great learning and abilities, which i fear were not sufficiently rewarded. HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. - 29 Caer ar daaf” abbreviated into Caerdaaf and Cardiff, means Jupapannia: (here the rogue has slily interpolated two letters, to support his hypothesis) that I can scarcely prevail upon myself to attempt to deprive him of the benefits of his great labour, and I am only comforted with the recollection, that even if I fail, it is probable his Greek and Latin will be read when my ephemeral lucubrations and consequently the folly of this attack will be forgotten. In justice however to Richard of Cirencester and Stukely his commentator, i cannot help agreeing with them that Caerdiff was in all probability, Tibia Amnis; and to me it seems clear that Caerdyddt (the main prop of Baxter's conjecture, from whence he would wish us to believe it was J upiter's town) is a corruption long subsequent to the time of the Romans. .. But to return to Gaer near Brecon, Mr. Harris, t in a letter to the society of antiquarians, supposes this fortification to have been the Magniss of Antoninus, (Magna of Richard of Cirencester). Horsley has satisfactorily proved, that there was no Roman station at Old Radnor, though the learned had agreed for some time that this was the scite of Magnis; yet though this station is thus blown out of Radnorshire, if the latter part of the 12th Iter of Antoninus, or the 13th of Richard of Cirencester, be correct, there is no more reason for placing Magnis at Gaer, than at Caerffili. It is totally out of the line from Abergavenny to Wroxeter in Shropshire, and then Kentchester will be admitted to be as Horsley has suggested, (notwithstanding Harris's assertion that it is universally allowed to be Ariconium) the lost fort Magnis. Harris's confirmations of his opinion (I say it with reluctance, but with great confi- dence) are extremely futile, and such as we should not have expected to have heard from him. He thinks, that because Gaer in two or three charters of Bernard Newmarch and Roger earl of Hereford to the monks of Brecon, is called vasta Civitas, it follows, it must be the Civitas Magna. Bernard Newmarch, soon after his arrival in Brecknockshire, razed Gaer, then called Caervong or Caervon, to the ground, and brought the materials, or at least such as were worth carrying, to Brecon. - x - The *Taaf-wy, Tawe and Teioi, from whence Tibia brensis's itinerary, cap. 6. So Jupannia seems mean the same thing, i. e. the winding water: in Taaf, the word &y or water is dropped, though it is preserved in some measure in both the other rivers;, Thames is of the same family, with the addition of the sibillating Saxons. The v or fand m are con- tinually changing places, and are as it were equi- vocal in the old British. This, by the assistance fully shewn hereafter. - ºf “Caerdyf Britannice, hodie Caerdydh vocatur of a valuable and ingenious friend, will be more also to have been a corruption of Gobannau of Gobannio, Abergavenny. - # Archaeologia, vol. 2. p. 1. - - § St. Agnes in Cornwall, says Mr. Polwhele, in his history of that county, vol. 1. p. 2074 Though I presume to know something more of Roman ways. than what I have acquired from my Camden, I am compleatly silenced when this historian places Leu- carum, Bomium, Nidus, Isca Legionum, Goban- nium, &c. in Cornwall. - sed corrupte,” says the annotator on Giraldus Cam- . . . . . . **- 30 - HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. The vastam or vastatam Civitatem, mentioned in these charters, meant nothing more than the ruined or ruinated city, or scite of a city, called Gaer. It is observable that in one of these, it is called Carneys, a corruption of Carnau, a heap of stones. This removal of the materials of the city thus destroyed by Bernard to “Aberhonddi,” is mentioned in an old M.S. in the British Musaeum; “inasmuch (continues the MS.)” as he liked this place better for fortifications, because of the straits.” In another MS. in the same repository, t it is called Caervong vaſor Brevi; and in another in the Bodleian library, it is written Caervong : the g thus retained in all these MSS. must be rejected, as we have no such termination in the Welsh as ong. Here then we have the Caervon, or rather Caervan vawr, the greater or higher Banmau or Bannio in Brecknockshire, and following the course of the Usk downwards the next station but one, in the line of communication from hence to the head quarters of the second legion at Caerleon, is Gobannio, from the British Go-banmau, the lesser or lower Bannau or Bannio in Monmouthshire. Having established as satisfactorily (I trust) as the nature of this subject will admit, that Gaer near Brecknock is the scite of the Bannio of the Romans, I proceed to follow their footsteps in that county; but here I have to lament the want of correct information and the nearly total deficiency of authentic documents, to enable me to trace them: to Tacitus, principally, if not solely, we are indebted for the history of the events in Britain in the first century. Tyssilio's chronicle at the same time that it pretends to inform us of transactions which passed long prior to this period, and to introduce to us such men in buckram, as CEneas Whiteshoulder, Brutus Green- shield, Belinus, Brennus, Androgeus and a cloud of kindred spirits, with their equally visionary queens and daughters, Ignoge, Estrildis, Sabrina and Genuissa, very rarely condescends to give us even the names of the Roman generals; so that the historian of the present day, can do little more than arrange the few facts he may be able to collect, and the produce of his labours can at last only be considered as a connected, but meagre table of chronology. - • . . * * Ostorius was succeeded by Aulus Didius, whose utmost exertions were directed not to retain the Silures in subjection, but merely to restrain their incursions into that part of Britain which the Romans called their own provinces, so that South Wales seems at this time to have been almost, if not altogether evacuated by the enemy: indeed we are told by Tacitus that not long after the partial conquest by Ostorius, the legionary camp master and cohorts who were left there to build forts, were compleatly surrounded by the Britons, and though the greatest part were rescued - . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . upon * Harl. Coll. No. 6870. t Rawlinson, No. 1220. . . . . ." : Tacitus's Annals, Lib. 12. --- HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. 31 upon assistance being sent them; yet the camp master and eighty centurions were slain, the foragers also put to death, and in the continual skirmishes that occurred, the inhabitants from their knowledge of the country, were generally successful. These barbarians we are told, had a remarkable turn of thinking: the emperor Claudius.* had threatened them, that like the Sugambri or Sicambri (who were almost exterminated and the remainder of them carried into Gaul) the name and memory of the Silures should not remain upon the earth : he had called to them (no doubt) by the mouth of his governors, propraetors and praetors, and had commanded them to come peaceably to Rome to be killed: proclamation after proclamation most likely followed to the same effect; but such was their peculiar obstimacy, (says Tacitus) “praeipua Silurum pervicacia,” that they would not submit to have their throats cut quietly. This tenaciousness of life, which is observable in eels and some few animals not endowed with the faculty of reasoning, may perhaps be excused in the uncivilized natives of South Wales. There are those (I am satisfied) who will not be surprized at their stubborness on this occasion, or think them to blame in their determination, and their descendants may be permitted even to applaud their spirit, when they learn that soon after the death of Ostorius they - defeated a legion, under the command of Manlius Valens; so that the Romans were obliged to carry on a kind of a defensive war with the British inhabitants for nine or ten years, until the arrival of Suetonius Paulinus. During this period, the invaders were so uncomfortably situated, that their historian Tacitus is compelled thus to acknowledge their fallen condition;t “Our veterans were slaughtered, our settlements burnt and our armies surrounded: we then contended only for our lives, it was not till some time afterwards that we had any thoughts of making conquests.” It does not appear that Suetonius Paulinus ever entered South Wales; his arms were directed against the Ordovices and the inhabitants of Anglesea; his victories there however had the effect of frightening the Silures into a temporary inactivity, with which his three successors, Petronius Turpilianus, i. Trebellius Maximus and Vettius or Vectius Bolanus, seem to have been perfectly satisfied. Petilius Cerealis, who followed these sleeping governours, was a formidable enemy, but the Brigantes (the inhabitants of Yorkshire and some of the adjoining counties) found him ample employ, though he ultimately subdued them. After him came a truly great and able man, to whose talents and superior knowledge in the art of war, more to than to his - -- - - valour, * Annal. Lib. 14. f Vit. Agric. . - #Tacitus, speaking of this man, (Annal. lib. 14.) not being attacked by the enemy, he refrained from gays “Is non irritato hoste neque lacessitus hones- hostilities on his side, and dignified a life of laziness sum pacis nomen Segni otio imposuit.” Satisfied at and indolence with the honourable name of peace. 32 - HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE, - valour, or that of his troops, may be attributed the completion of the conquest, for which Ostorius had only cleared the road. ... -- In what year of Christ, Julius Frontinus came into Britain is not precisely ascertained; his arrival may with tolerable accuracy, be dated about the year:70, as he was succeeded by Agricola in 78 : he brought with him to Caerleon the second legion of Augustus, called Victrix, and from thence he commenced his.expedition into the interior of Wales; as to the particulars of his campaigns and the battles he - fought, history is entirely silent; all we learn is that he compleatly subdued the Silures." ... • º, ~ To secure his conquest, and to establish a free intercourse and communication through the country, he repaired and rebuilt the forts erected by Ostorius, then in ruins, and caused the military road to be made from him, called the Julia Strata.” This road has been traced with much diligence, and I conceive with great accuracy, by Williams and Cox, in their histories of Monmouthshire: the latter has given a map or sketch of its course from Bath to the Severn, from thence to Caerwent, Caerleon, Caerdiff, Boverton, Neath and Loughor, where he unaccountably makes it stop; whereas I conceive, it proceeded Westward to Caermarthen, from thence it turned to the East up the vale of Towy to Llys Brychan in Llanddoisant, the scite of a station as I conjecture, (for at present there are no remains of it, though several Roman coins were some years ago found here, which were sold to a watchmaker in Llywel, who melted them down) then to Tal y Sarn, the head or highest part of the military way; from thence it came down on the Southern side of the Usk to Rhyd y briw ; here it crossed the river, and near this place (as Mr. Strange observes in one of the volumes of the Archaeologia, not now by me) it was perfectly visible some time back; from hence it continued in the same direction to some ford near the scite of the bridge at Aberbrān; here again it recrossed the river Usk for the last time and proceeded to Gaer, being intersected at this spot by what is now called Sarn Helen, another Roman road leading from Neath to Chester. - r º - n A . . . . . º From w - - . - º º N / - - - i - * It is difficult to conceive why Horsley in his much known in the country through which the essay on Antonine's Itinerary, should wish to de- prive Julius Frontinus of the credit of planning and constructing this road, so absolutely necessary to the preservation of his authority over a country he had acquired by the sword, or why he should be desirous to attribute to a Briton a work evidently Roman. He supposes the Julia Strata to take its name from Saint Julian, “a Saint (says he) much known in that country;” he is mistaken; he is not greatest part of the Julia Strata runs, and ifithad been named from him, it would have been called Strata Juliana, and not Julia. Cressy gives us a Julius who suffered martyrdom in the third century: he was (says he) “a citizen of Caerleon.” No person who has read the history either of England or Wales, ever dreamtofattributing this road to Julius Caesar, as Horsley has intimated. § -' Aſ ºf P ºf 7/e 4//frenz Province ºf - Pengwern DEMETIA & Sf LURIA, -- Mediolanum - &n ſhrewsbury Ol' - s [. wod - /)YF ED & SYLL/ſ/G, - El Uriconium with the Courses of the Roman Roads thro' those Countries. 2 Nº () º - - tº Q - y - . - 2ſº - D - - - - 2. That between ſyllwg & England Green. . - º ºv 0 Zºf of Montgomeryshire The courses of the Iulia ſtrata A3. The Boundary of Dyfºd is to/oured_________ Blue . Plyndymon That of the Jarn Helen or rather- Jarn Lleon or Chester Road The other Roman Road, J3rown. Jingle Dotted. Zines are the of Courtzier sº Branogenium. M A R P. º D der Wºmºn or- WoRoºszzº. * # - –2– - * - 㺠º - º #. - sº ENET/TA - - - - à | E; * - º - U - - : ºu. # #. Glebon Colonia -: P. Caer Zoyw GLor/CE,STER Britarh Miley 69 Zo a Degree. Cºpied from the Cºrºnal by /): Davier, Jurveyor 1&o.4. = ºº i N HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE, 33 From Gaer, the Strata Julia continued Eastward to Brecknock, passed across a street, then called from this circumstance, the Struet, a corruption of street or stratum; from thence it proceeded under and on the South side of an eminence known by the name of Slwch, to another at Llanhamlach, called Ty Illtid, where there is a Crom- lech, and formerly was an Exploratorium or Arx speculatoria, as I conceive. From hence it ran in the same direction, above Scethrog house, under the hill called Allt yr yscrin, keeping in a higher line than the present turnpike road from Brecon to Abergavenny, and ascending to the pass called Bwlch, which it crossed, and then pursued the course or track of the old Bwlch road, where the remains of it are still visible; from thence down into the vale of Cwmdu, by a house called the Gaer, where there was (I am firmly persuaded) a Roman station of vast extent, though not at present known to antiquarians, but of which a plan and description will hereafter be given; from thence it passed to Tretower, to the ruinated church or chapel of Llanfair, near which we again meet with a mound, probably an Exploratorium; from thence to Crickhowel, and so on in nearly a strait line to Abergavenny, from which station it followed the course of the river Usk, keeping the whole of the way on the North side, to the towns of Usk and Caerleon. At this latter place, the link united and proceeded in one line to Caerwent and Bath. . ºr , - As soon as the Romans had firmly seated themselves in Britannia Secunda, it is natural to suppose, they would wish to establish several vicinal or cross roads' between the two chains; accordingly we find one, running nearly North and South, from Caerdiff to Caerbanmau; this road proceeds from Caerdiff to Caerphili, though its track thus far is not easily discerned; but from the latter place, leaving Bedwas on the right, it proceeds in the same direction to Pont yr Ystrad, on a high ridge between the rivers Sirhowy and Rhymny and enters Breconshire at Brynoer, fifteen or sixteen miles from Caerphili: it is known by the inhabitants by the name of Sarn-hir, the long causeway; its track during the whole or the greatest part of this distance is perfectly discernible: Kirb stones occasionally appear on the sides; it is about ten feet wide, and whenever it crosses bogs, large flat stones have been laid down as a foundation for the superstrata of smaller gravel and earth. After entering Breconshire, it still retains the same direction along the Trevil ddu or Tyr foel ddu, to Blancrawnon, Penrhiw-calch, down Glyncollwm, from thence to Llanfrynach, where from the discovery of some Roman baths, there seems to have been a Roman general's villa, or perhaps a campus aestivus; from thence it followed Northward, crossed the Usk somewhere near Brecon and joined the other branch of the Julia Strata leading to Gaer. At Brynoer, about half way on this road from Cardiff to Brecon, Roman cinders are now frequently found, where a blomery seems formerly to have been established F 34 - HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. - established, at Llanfynach the iron was probably brought down to be manufactured: at this latter place, there is now a field called Clos y Geſailion, or the smith's field, or the field of the Smiths’ forges. . . . . I am also strongly inclined to believe from the appearance of an antient road on Llwydlo fach, in the parish of Tyr yr abad in Breconshire, discovered a few years back in digging turf, resembling in its materials and formation the works of the Romans, that another of their military ways connected Muridunum with the station of Cwm in Radnorshire. This stratum or Sarn began (as I apprehend) at Carmarthen; proceeded from West to East on the North side of the Towy up to a farm now called Ystrad, to Llandovery and Llanvair-y-brim church, where some antiquarians are of opinion there was a station; from thence near Glanbran to Llwydlo fach, on which common, its track is now visible, crossed the Irvon at Llancamddwr into Llangam- march; passed Caerau, the scite of an Arx speculatoria, but not of a station as I conceive, though the contrary has been asserted by some authors, and they are in some measure justified in their conjecture by the name which this place still retains; from thence it proceeded through the parishes of Llanafan fawr and Llanvihangel-bryn- pabuan, crossed the Wye somewhere near the New bridge, entered Radnorshire and joined the Sarn Helen or Chester road at Cwm in Llanyre. Mr. Harris observes very properly in his letter to the antiquarian society, that in order to curb more effectually the Silures, the Romans formed two chains of garrisons, (though in fact, as has been just mentioned, they are only a link in a line, as will be seen in the annexed map) both (says he) begun at Caerleon; one ran thro’ the South part of their country, which lies near the Severn sea, and the other North, along the river Usk: these last he explains to be Burrium, Gobannium, and as he conjectures, Magnis, where he also halts; but without a doubt, there must have been a commu- nication between the upper Bannio or Caervan-vawr. I am informed, that upon the confines of Caermarthenshire, Westward of the river Sawdde, in the hamlet of Dyffrin Cydrich, and in the parish of Llangadock, there were formerly remains of another Roman station; and if the road from thence forward, in the same direction, could be traced, perhaps another could be found below Golden Grove. The town of Trecastle has a mound indeed of considerable height, which, if the Roman road ran here, on that side of the river might have been the scite of a smaller tower or Arx speculatoria; but there are no remains of intrenchments or fortifications to induce us to suppose this place ever to have been a respectable military station, and I have reasons for believing that this eminence was collected and thrown together after the time pf the Romans. ‘. At HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. 35 At Gaer, near Brecon, as I have before observed, the Strata Julia was crossed by the Sarn Lleon or Via Helena, leading from Neath to Chester. This road, the tradition of the inhabitants attributes to Helen, the mother of Constantine; it might with equal truth, be said to be the work of Helen of Troy. Our Helen, (the daughter of old king Coel, or Coel Godebog) as the British historians call her, though there are considerable doubts as to her birth, parentage and education, must have been a wonderful roadmaker indeed, if all those in Britain called Viae Helenae, are of her - construction; she must certainly not only have been the first, but the most active surveyor general ever born in this kingdom: but Sarn Helen here, is only a corruption of Sarn Lleon or Sarn Lleon Gawr. When or where this hero of antiquity lived, I presume not to determine; the chronicle of Tyssilio says he was cotemporary with Solomon king of Israel, and speaks thus briefly of him,” “Bryttys Darianlas a drigiod gyda ei Dat, ac eva wledychod wedy y Dat deng mlyned, ac ar ei ol y by Leon Gawr y vab yate; a gur da vy hwnnw y rwydhaws llywodraeth y Dyrnas ac adailiwys yn y part draw yr Gogled oynis Brydain Dinas a elwir Caerlleon aramser hwnnwydoed Selyw ap Dafyd yn adailiat Temy! Iessu Gristyngharissalym.” Brutus Greenshield remained with his father, and he governed the country ten years; after him followed his son Lleon, the mighty, and he was a good man, and a king who encouraged truth and justice. And this Lleon established and reformed the government of the kingdom, and built a city in the Northern part of the island of Britain, called Caerleon,t (by some said to be Carlisle) and at this time Solomon, the son of David, built the temple of Jesus Christ at Jerusalem. From a chieftain of the name of Lleon, Chester was called Caer-Lleon; and from - its leading to that city from Nidus or Nedd, (now spelt Neath) this road was called. by the Britons, Sarn Lleon, or the Chester road, which was latinized into Strata Leona, afterwards corrupted into Strata or Via Helena, though I must take the liberty with great deference to Owen, to believe that here and there a Via Helena may be a corruption of Sarn y Lluon, an anomalous plural of Llu an army or - - . . . . multitude, *Myf. Arch. vol. 2. p. 124. t Pennant, in his tour in Wales, (vol. 1. p. 111.) supposes Caerlleon or Chester to mean the camp of the Legion, and calls it Cae'r lleon vawr ar Dyfr- dwy, the camp of the great or twentieth legion on the Dee. He is not aware that Lleon, if it applies at all to Legion, must be plural; but the city is called. Caerlleon gaur, and not valor, in all old Welsh MSS. He shall, however, have his choice of Caerlleon vawr or Caerlleon gawr; in the one case - * dº - - . - g . it will be Castrum Legionum magna, and in the other, Castrum Legionum Principis. º - # It would be dangerous to refer my readers to Richards's dictionary, who says the plural of Lleng a Legion, is Lleon. “Poor plodding Richards (says that Cawr Goronwy Owen) his book will be of no service to the next compiler, or indeed to any body else.” Camb. Register, vol. 2. p. 505. I humbly beg leave to acknowledge my obligations to him, and to admit his utility. . . . . . . * * F 2 36 HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE, multitude, which may be translated almost literally into English, by the military way or road. g • . - At Neath, the Sarn Lleon is discernible on the marsh, on the North side of the river Neath, opposite to the castle; to whichitevidently led; from thence it proceeded East by North, and is discovered at Lletty’r Afel; it then ascends a hill called Cefn- hir-fynidd and so to Gelly-ben-uchel, Banwen and Tony vildra, where it enters Brecknockshire and its formation appears as perfect as when first made, excepting its slight coat of turf and grass; a little South Eastward of Tony vildra it crosses a brook called Nant-hir, pursues the same direction to Blan-nedd by Cefn-uchel-dref, leaving that farm and also the lime kilns at Carnau-gwynion in Ystradfellte to the South, keeps a course parallel with the road from Pontneathvaughan to Brecon for near a mile; passes close by a stone of about nine feet high, called Maen Llia, and instead of proceeding as the present road does to the head of that nearly precipitous dingle, called Cwmdu, it may be traced gradually descending on the South side of the Senni river and vale; from this place it is now no longer visible for a considerable distance, but it probably passed above Blän-semi house, where the inclosures and the plough have compleatly effaced or concealed it, until we come near Blangwrthid, in the parish of Llanspyddid, where it is again seen. Near Blångwrthid is an artificial mound, on which formerly, perhaps was an Exploratorium, though afterwards converted into a small fort or keep (according to the tradition of the country) by Maud de St. Valeri, wife of William de Breos, who lived in the reign of king John. Here we lose it, and we can only conjecture that it descended into the vale of Usk, near Bettws, or Penpont chapel, where it joined the Julia Strata and proceeded with it to Gaer; from thence Northward, I have not hitherto been able to trace it with accuracy, though I believe I observe here and there some remains of it. - Having given the general outline of the works and the track of the roads made by the Romans in Brecknockshire, little more can be said of them until I come to the parochial history of the county, when the lesser and more minute features will be described. The inhabitants of this part of the principality either submitted quietly from hence forward to the yoke of their masters, or if any material events . occurred during their stay in this country, the memorials of them have perished in the lapse of ages.” - .' • - About 150 years after the establishment of the Romans in Britain, the emperor Severus divided his territories there into two provinces, Britannia Prima and Britannia Secunda; the latter comprehended the whole of North and South Wales. - - . . . . Constantine *The loss of a volume by Ammianus Marcellinus, which it is said, contained a history of the occurrenes in Britain during part of the fime the Romans remained there, is particularly to be regretted. - . - \ . . . º - - - Constantine in about half a century afterwards, again divided them into six provinces; distinguished by the names of Britannia Prima, Britannia Secunda, Flavia, Maxima, A. Valentia and Vespasiana, and a regular itinerary (the first Perhaps of Britain) was drawn up by Lollius of the whole. * , From several coins of Alectus, Carausius, Constantius and Constantine, having heen found at a place called Carnau bach in . Llanfrynach, in Brecknockshire, where a"Roman bath, and other works of that people were discovered some years back, it should seem that the legions remained in that cou ntry during the reigns of those emperors, and until Maximus in the year 383 carried them together with the flower of the British youth, into Gaul, never to return; leaving behind him a feeble and - enervated race, accustomed to a life of inactivity and indolence, fondly attached to the luxuries introduced by their conquerors; corrupted by their vices, but possessing neither their virtues or their valour, and totally incapable of protecting themselves i against the attacks of an enemy; until from the repeated incursions of the Scots and Picts, and afterwards of their merciless foe the Saxons, they were once more compelled to learn the use of arms, and to habituate themselves to a life of warfare, Thus far, I am indebted to the authors of Rome and the Empire for the information I have been enabled to collect: I am now obliged to have recourse to the MSS. of the Arwydd feirdd, or heralds of our country, and though this source of intelligence may be scanty, perhaps incorrect, and consequently not to be as implicitly relied upon as the authors I have hitherto quoted, they are intitled to considerable attention; they are systematically arranged, cautiously selected and carefully preserved, by those par- ochial or provincial officers, whose duty it was to record the exploits and pedigrees of our ancestors. Should it be necessary to add another argument, there is one still behind, which will justify my reference to them—they are the only documents to be found that treat of that part of the principality now called Brecknockshire. f In one of these MSS. we are informed, that about the latter end of the first century, and before the conclusion of those calamitous wars, which terminated (as has been seen) so fatally to Silurean liberty, there lived a king, or rather regulus of Brecknockshire, (then called Garthmadryn) whose name was Gwraldeg, and according to this account, Meurig or Marius, now governed Britain, as Brenhim Prydain oll, or monarch of the whole island. In his reign, the territories of Albania or Scotland were invaded by a captain or leader who came from Ægypt, though by birth a Grecian, of the name of y Gadelus. -- - - . * Whit, hist. of Manchester, vol. 1. + MS. Rawl. 1220, Bodl. Lib. MS. Harl. Coll. 687 0, Brit. Mus. MS. 6108, ditto. MS. 2289, ditto. : For his descendants continued by a female who married Brychan Brecheiniog hereafter mentioned. See Appendix, No. V. -, 38 HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE, Gadelus. This adventurer, with a chosen band of friends and accompanied by his wife Scota, possessed himself of that part of the country, from him since called Gadelway or Galloway. Among his attendants in this expedition, was a young man, named Teithall or Tathall, son of Annwn Ddu or Antoninus Niger. This Teithall was remarkable for his amiable disposition and the suavity of his manners, and being introduced into the British court, he had the good fortune to attract the notice of king Meurig, by whose interest he obtained in marriage, Morvytha, (Morfydd) only daughter and heiress of Gwraldeg, king, or rather regulus of Garthmadryn. Un- fortunately for the credit of this legend, there is a trifling anachronism in the tale, which will send captain Gadelus, his lady and their followers, into the company of CEneas Whiteshoulder, Brutus Greenshield and the other doubtful heroes of anti- quity; for whose acquaintance, we are indebted to Tyssilio Of Geoffrey of Monmouth. Gadelus, as some old Scotish authors tell us, married Scota, a daughter of Pharaoh - Cenchres, king of Ægypt, and made himself master of that part of Great Britain, in honour of his consort, called Scotland.” Now this conquest of Scotland by Gathelus or Gadelus (which by the by has long since been exploded by the more learned and respectable historians of that nation) is supposed to have taken place at a period very little subsequent to the departure of the Israelites out of Ægypt; whereas Meurig, king of Britain, in whose time Gwraldeg is said to have lived, did not begin his reign till the year 72 of the Christian aera. Be this as it may, and whether Teithall was of Greek, Roman or British origin, the MSS. inform us that by this marriage he had issue Teithin or Tydheirn, who succeeded his father in the government of Garthmadryn, and left issue, as some say, Frith y blawd, who was followed by his son, Teidfallt or Teithphaltim, though others omit this frith the mealman. Teidfallt or Teithphaltim is reported to have encroached upon his neighbours, and to have been the first who assumed the title of king of Garthmadryn. Hugh Thomas t supposes this to have been effected by his joining forces with the Irish, Picts and Scots, in their invasions of South Wales; if so, this places him, and con- sequently his ancestor, Gwraldeg, much later than he is stated to be in this MS. as the incursions of the barbarians did not take place until nearly the period when - - the * Fordun's hist. of Scotland, lib. 1. cap. 8. Major de Gest. Scot. lib. 1. folio 17. Girald. Camb St. George, Garter principal king at arms in the year served in the Bodleian library : he left his MSS. 1703 : he was son to a Mr. William Thomas, a number 2238 and 2289, to the earl of Oxford, but salesman and citizen of London, of the family of his lordship very liberally paid for them to his Thomas of Llanvrynach, in Breconshire; he was brother, who was very poor; they are now in the by profession 2}} 3.1 FIS painter ; fond of antiquities, Harleian collection, bound up in volumes, but not he made collections for a history of Brecknockshire, arranged: he died without issue, in 1714. of which a quarto MS. intitled “An essay towards - - f Hugh Thomas was deputy herald to Sir Henry the history and antiquities of Brecknock,” is pre- HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE, 39 the Romans were about to quit Britain ; probably therefore, this prince lived in the time of the commotions mentioned by Julius Firmicus, which brought the emperor Constans into Britain” in the middle of tempestuous winter; the particulars of which (says Echardt) are recorded in that volume of Ammianus Marcellinus which is now unfortunately missing. Indeed it is highly probable that Hugh Thomas and those MSS. which place Gwraldeg in the year 230, are correct, as the seven persons here named, can hardly be supposed to have lived so long as from the middle of the first to the beginning of the fifth century. Teidfallt; was succeeded by his son Tewdrig, S Tydyr or Tudor; according to the computation of Hugh Thomas, he was cotemporary with the emperor Valentinian, and acted in conjunction with the Picts, Saxons, Scots and Attacotti. The continual squabbles for empire, the licentiousness and turbulence of the Roman soldiers and the wars with the Germans, the Alemanni and other inhabitants of the Conti- ment, fully employed the attention of the Roman emperors and generals at this time, and though we do not know that any resolution had yet been formed of quitting Britain, their possessions here were now only considered as a secondary object. The consternation however, which these barbarians had spread throughout the provinces by their savage and ferocious acts of cruelty, not only along the coasts, but in the interior of the island, at last compelled the emperor to send his general Theodosius to expel the enemy, and to reduce the rebellious natives to obedience, It is supposed, says Thomas, that upon the restoration of peace by that officer, the votive Altar, found at Gaer or Caerfan, and removed to the priory of Brecon some years back, was erected. . . . . - Tewdrig had issue only one daughter, whose name was Marchell or Marcella, who married Aulach, Amlech, Afalach or Olave, said to have been a son of Corineog, king of the Brigantes or Britons of Dublin, though he was most probably of that part of Ireland now called Wexford. This Corineog, in a MS. in the library of Jesus college, Oxford, written about 500 years ago and quoted by Hugh Thomas, is called Cormac mac Eurbre Gwyddel; of his son's marriage with the heiress of Garthmadryn . . . we *A. D. 543. t Echard's Roman hist. vol. 3. p. 9. f. A. D. 364. § A MS. in the British Musæum, No. 6870, informs us that Tydor ap Neubedd, lord of Breck- nock, lived at Crwccas near Brecon, and that he was a benefactor to the church of Landaff; but I am inclined to think that the Tydor or Tydyr, who gave Merthyr Tewdrig, now called Mathern, to the see or rather the church of Landaff, was this Tydyr ap Teithwalch, although Llewelyn Offeiriad's MS. makes him live too early for the episcopacy of . - - • { • º . & ... * - r Oudoceus. Williams, in his history of Mon- mouthshire, calls him Tewderic ap Teithwalch, and says he was a prince of Gwent, and the first who built a church at Landaff, page 75. - MS. 2339, Hari. Coll. | + - - \ 40 HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. - ~ we have a strange tale or legend in Latin in the Cottonian library, entitled “Cognacio Brychan inde Brechenawc, dicta est, pars Demetiae in S. Wallia;” it is as follows:* - Tewdrig, king of Garthmadryn, with his captains and elders, and all his family, removed to Bryncoynt near Lanmaes. This Tewdrig had an only daughter, whose name was Marchell, whom he thus addressed, “I am very uneasy least your health should suffer from the pestilential disorder which at present ravages our country, (now Marchell had a girdle made of a certain skin, to which popular opinion attri- buted such a virtue, that whoever girded their loins with it, would be safe from any pestilential infection) go therefore my daughter (says he) to Ireland, and God grant you may arrive there in safety. Her father then appointed her 300 men and * twelve honourable maids, to wait upon her and conduct her thither. On the first night they reached Llansemin, it where one hundred of her attendants died, (whether r from cold or pestilence is not asserted, though the English legend asserts it was from extreme cold). On the morrow, anxious and alarmed at this melancholy event, she arose and proceeded on her journey, and arrived the same night at Madrum, § where as at the former place, she lost one hundred men. On the following morning she arose very early, and the third night brought them to Porthmawr;| from whence, with her surviving hundred men and maidens, she passed over to Ireland. Upon the news of her arrival, Aulach, the son of Gormac, the king of the country, met her with a most princely train, and the cause of her coming being explained to him he was so smitten with her beauty and pleased with her high rank, (for she was the daughter of a king) that he fell in love with and married her; making at the same time a solemn vow, that if she produced him a son, he would return with her to Britain. Aulach then made honourable provision for her twelve maidens, giving each of them away in marriage. In process of time, Marchell conceived and brought forth a son, whom his father named Brychan; and when Brychan had compleated his second year, his parents took him to Britain, and they resided at Benni. The English legend relates the same story, with some little difference and additions; for after informing us of the journey of Marchell into Ireland and her marriage there, it proceeds, “ and Marchell brought forth a son and called him Brychan, and Aulach with his queen and son, and the captains following, viz. - - - Karmol * . . . . * Appendix, No. VI, - + There is a field near Llanfaes being part of Newton farm, which is called Bryn Gwin, on this field were formerly heaps of stones and vestiges of buildings. - - # Perhaps Llansevin in Llangadock, Caermarthenshire. $ Meidrim in Caermarthenshire. | Porthmawr, a Haven near St. David's. - HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. 41 Karmol, Fernagh,” Ensermach, Lithlimich, &c. came to Britain: Brychan was born at Beuni and was placed under the care of Drychan, whom some call Brichan and others Brynach, and this Drychan brought up Brychan; thence Brychan was brought to Brecheiniog, when he was four years old. And in the seventh year, Drychan said to Brychan, bring my came to me; and Drychan was dim in his latter years, and while he lay waking, a boar came out of the woods and stood on the banks of the river Yschir, t and there was a stag behind him in the river, and there was a fish that bellied the stag, (i. e. was under the belly of the stag) which portended that Brychan should be happy in plenty of wealth. Likewise, there was a beech which stood on the banks of the said river, wherein the bees made honey, and Drychan said to his foster son Brychan, behold this tree of bees and honey I will give thee also full of gold and silver, and may the grace of God remain with thee here and hereafter. And afterwards Aulac gave his son Brychan as an hostage to the king of Powis; and in progress of time, Brychan lay with the daughter of Benadell, and she brought him a son named Cynog, who being carried to the tents was baptized; when Brychan taking the bracelet from his arm, gave it to his son Cynog. This Cynog is famous in his country, and the bracelet is still preserved as a curious relick.” The plain English of these tales, as far as it can be made Out, seems to be, that this princess and her countrymen to avoid a famine or some contagious disorder, were driven into Ireland, where she married and afterwards returned with her husband to her native land when the scarcity was over or the disorder had ceased. The arms given by the British heralds to Marchell were, Or, three bats, or (as they call them, rere-mice) azure, beaked and clawed gules: perhaps these ill. boding harbingers of darkness were adopted in commemoration of the gloomy pestilence which then raged in the country, and their beaks and claws were represented red, to denote the bloody characters which marked its track. These arms, quarterly, second and third, with - those of Brychan, viz. Sable, a fess, Or, between two swords in pale, points up and -- down, argent, pommeled and hilted of the second, are now those of the county of Brecon; they are born by the Gwynnes of Glanbrån in Caermarthenshire, and Garth and Buckland in Breconshire, as well as by several other descendants of this Aulach and Marchell. - .” In this succession of reguli, I have hitherto followed the MS. of Hugh Thomas, which is confirmed by several others; but George Oweni Harry in his book of g º: pedigrees, * Three Miles Westward of Brecknock is a hill called Mynidd Ffernach. † Escir or Yscyr. # George Owen Harry was rector of Whitchurch Harry in deriving Tewdri g, then called Tewdrig * in Kemeys, in the county of Pembroke, and lived Vendiged, or the blessed, king of Glamorgan, in the reign of James the first. The Truman MS. Gwent and Garthmadryn, from Teithall apTeithrin *hereafter often referred to, agrees with George Owen ap Niniaw, &c, ; G 249 HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE, pedigrees, intitled, “The well-spring of true nobilitie,” differs in toto from the line chalked out by them; he takes no notice whatever of Gwraldeg and his race, nor does he even mention the territory of Garthmadryn; but after a long catalogue of the princes of Glamorgan, he comes at length to Niniaw, who had issue Teithwalch, who had issue Tewdrig, the father of Meurig prince of Glamorgan, and Marchell, the mother of Brychan, sirnamed Brecheiniog: this, if true, would lead us to conclude, that Garthmadryn, instead of being an independent state, as elsewhere represented, was nothing more than a cantred of Morganwg or Glamorgan, and now first separated as a marriage portion with Marchell, whose son excercised a regal power of changing the name to Brecheiniog; but this account is intitled to little credit or attention, opposed as it is by six or seven pedigrees of different ages and, by different writers; especially when the manners, as well as the language of the two provinces (as has before been observed) have always varied, and marked them as distinct tribes. This disagreement between the genealogists may perhaps be accounted for, when we recollect that Teidfallt, Teithphaltim or Teithwalch, is said to have been a. troublesome restless chieftain, and to have encroached upon his neighbour's territo- ties; he may therefore have dispossessed the regulus of Glamorganshire, and George Owen Harry, or rather the herald whom he follows, finding him in the list of princes of that country, may have considered him as the son of Niniaw, his predecessor in the MS.; but the majority of writers is so evidently and indisputably in favour of the descent from Gwraldeg, that I cannot consent to give him up, even though the Glamorganshire family would connect prince Brychan with the hero of Troy and the long race of British kings supposed to spring from him. CHAPTER III, History continued—From Brychan Brecheiniog, sometimes called Brychan Yrth, to the Reign and Súccession in the Line of Cradoc Fraich-fras. ... " ...” .. TeRACHANUS (says Dr. Powel” speaking of Brychan) natus erat patre Haulapho R. P. Hybernorum Regeet Matre Britannica, nimirum, Marcella, filia Theodorici filii Teithphalti Reguli de Garthmadryn, illius nempe Regionis quae ab hoc Bra- chano nomen accipit et hodie Brechonia vel Brechinia dicitur Britannice Brecheinoc; so that it seems clear, whether the mother of Brychan. went into Ireland, attended in the manner just mentioned, or not; or whether she was or was not possessed of that girdle, whose virtue we should suppose would have made such a journey unnecessary, she married an Irishman, who it is said, died in Breconshire and was buried in Llanspyddid in that county, where a stone now to be seen (though there is no inscription upon it) is supposed to have been placed to his memory: the time of his death is unknown, but he was succeeded in the government of Breconshire by his son Brychan, in the beginning of the fifth century: the MS. in Jesus college before mentioned, says he begun his reign in the year 400, and that he died in 450; he however did not establish himself without considerable difficulty, as the native princes, jealous perhaps of his Irish origin, made great opposition to his claims; particularly as his countrymen and the - Picts and Saxons, had a few years previous to, and indeed during his time, renewed their incursions into Britain: for, in 420, we are informed that a horde of these plunderers were defeated at Maesgarmon in Flintshire, f by the Britons, with the bishops Germanus and Lupus at their head. The monkish historians attribute this victory to the suggestion of the former prelate, who instructed his army to attend to the word he gave and to repeat it: accordingly he pronounced that of Halleluliah his soldiers caught the sacred sound, proclaimed it aloud three times with such extatic force, that the hills resounded with the cry; the enemy were panic - • . . . - -- - struck * Note on the 2nd Chap. Gir. Camb. Itin. t Pennant's tour in Wales, vol. 1. p. 437, - G 2 44 HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE, struck and fled on all sides, laying down their arms and their booty, whilst the pious. Britons pocketed the plunder and thanked God for his assistance: however impro- bable this tale may appear, it may perhaps be reconciled to truth, without having recourse to a miracle. . * Brychan, we are told, had three wives, of names most unintelligible and uncouth. even to a Welshman; whose powers of swallowing consonants, are supposed to be equal to those of an ostrich in devouring and digesting iron. The Jesus college. . MS. does not give them to us, but George Owen Harry calls them. Eurbrost, Am- brost and Pharwystry, and the Bonedd y Saint, Eurbrawst, Rhybrawst and Pheresgri: the reader is of course at liberty to adopt whicheverset he prefers, By these wives. he had a numerous progeny; most of whom embraced a religious life, and became the nursing fathers and nursing mothers of the church: “Quibus passim per Cambro-. Britanniam(says Giraldus)Templa et Divorum et Divarum nomina inscribuntur,” yet there are hardly two genealogists who perfectly agree as to their names. They are said to be more than forty in number. The names of thirty-four, copied from a Welsh MS. of Llewelyn Offeiriad, by Mr. Edward Llwyd, were sent by him to. Hugh Thomas, and will be here introduced. Thomas informed Mr. Llwyd (as. appears by a letter* of his, still preserved among his papers in the British museum) that he had also a list copied from a MS. of a Mr. John Jones of Devynnock. George Owen Harry gives another, Leland another, from the life of St. Nectanus, and the Myfy rian Archaeology another; all differing as to some of the names. Lelandt makes them all reside in Devon and Cornwall, Mr. Cartet says, the sons. of Brychan were sent to Ireland to be instructed in religion and learning; but Hugh, Thomas Š thinks it probable, that some of them at least, received their education, from Saint Dyfrig or Dubricius (afterwards consecrated a bishop by Saint-Germain), who then kept his famous school, spoken of by the centuriators of Magdeburgh, upon. the banks of the Wye, probably at a place now called Gwenddwr or Gwaynddwr, from whence he obtained the name of Gainius or Gwaynius | Wagensis. '. The sons of Brychan, according to the Jesus. college MS. were Cynawg, Drem. - Drem-rudd, or the ruddy countenanced, Clydwyn, (the first legitimate son according to others). Ilien, Papai, (whom the Irish, says the MS. call Pianno, Pivannus and Piapponus) Cynodi, Rhwfan, Marchai, Dingat, Berwyn and Rheidoc; the daughters, Gwladis, Wrgren, Marchell, Gwtlith, Drynwin, Cyngar, Rhynhyder, Eleri, Gwawr, Gwtvil, * Harl. Coll. No. 6381. # Collectanea, vol.4, p. 153 . 8vo. #Hist. of England, vol. 1. p. 186, § Harl. Coll. No. 2289. - || He was (it is said) of Abergwayn or Fishguard and from the place of his nativity, called Gainius, - but Leland says, he was born on the banks of the Wye. --- A- . . . . . . HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE, 43 Gwtvil, ~rugon, Eitech, Tangwystl Tydvil, Goleuddydd, º . -van, Gwen, Felii, Tybieu, Emmreith, Rhyneiden, Cledy, another Gwen, and Alud, to which some MSS. add Cenau and Dwynwen, and others, Ceinwen, - Cynawg or Cynog (as has been before noticed) was a. natural son of Brychan, by a daughter of Bamadyl prince of Powis, whose name was Banadlvedd. Soon after his birth” he was put under the care of a holy man named Gastayn, to whom the church near Llangorse pool, called Llangasty talyllyn, was dedicated, and by whom he was baptized. Cynog is recorded in the Romish calendar as a Saint of great celebrity. Cressy + says, “the ſame of his sanctity was most eminent among the Silures, his name is consigned, among our English martyrology, on the eleventh of February, where he flourished in all virtues about the year of Christ 492. To him refers that which Giraldus reporteth of the wreath of St. Canawe, (for so he calls him) which the inhabitants of the county esteem to be a precious relick and of wonderful virtue ; insomuch that if any one is to give testimony, if that wreath be placed in sight, he dare not commit perjury.” This wreath is spoken of in the legend of Brychan, as a bracelet given by Brychan to his son on the day of his bap- tism, and which, the reporter says, “is still preserved:” when he wrote we do not know, but unfortunately we do know that it has been long (I fear) irrecoverably lost; as without asserting that mankind are become more wicked than they were in the year 492 (though it is much the fashion to think so) I may venture to affirm, that in proportion, as population has increased, and oaths have been multiplied, it would be ten thousand times more useful in 1805, than it was in the days of St. Cynog. This holy man is said to have been murdered by the Pagan Saxons, # upon a mountain called the Wan, in the parish of Merthyr Cynog in Breconshire. The following churches in this county are dedicated to his memory; Merthyr Cynog or St. Cynog the Martyr, Devynog, Penderin and Llangynog; as are also Boughrood in Radnorshire, and Llangynog in Montgomeryshire. Before I proceed to the lines of Drem Drem-rudd (by some called Rhain) and Clydwyn, between whom the greatest part ofthe territories of Brychan were divided; I shall take the liberty of disposing of the Saints and Saintesses. of the family, who seem to have inherited little, if any, of their father's possessions, and to have placed their expectations much higher; as their whole endeavours were to seek a kingdom. not of this world. Of Ilien, Papai and Cynodi, the third, fourth and fifth sons, we know nothing. RhwVan settled at Anglesea; Marchai, in Cyveiliog in Powis; and - . . . . . . - . . . Berwyn, - - * Cotton MSS. + Church history. - •, #From the MS. of Thomas Truman, of Pant Llwyd, in Llansanor, Glamorganshire; $Sed q.v. Postea. 46 HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE, Berwin, in Cornwall. Dingat resided near the place where the town of Llandovery in Carmarthenshire is now situate; where a church is dedicated to his memory, as well as at Dingatstow in Monmouthshire; though Brown Willis incorrectly says, these churches were dedicated to Saint Mary. Dingat had two sons, Pascen and Cyfydr. Hugh Thomas says, that in Tywyn church in Merioneddshire, is an antient tomb-stone, thus inscribed, PASC TNT. This, if not the grave of Pascentius the son of Vortigern, who had territories as it is said, in the neighbourhood of Builth, was, in all probability, a monument to the memory of Pascen ap Dingat. Rheidoc, the youngest son of Brychan, according to Llewelyn Offeiriad's MS. in Jesus college, which I have hitherto followed, is supposed to have passed the greatest part of his life in France; and there is a question, whether he was not the Sanctus Briocus or Brioc, bishop of Brieux in Normandy, noticed by Cressy, as the pupil of St. Germain or Germanus; but Mr. Carte thinks not. In the life of St. Brioc, published by Andrew Saussage, in Martyrol: Gallic, he is said to have been a Briton of noble birth, in Provincia Corticana, which Camden and Archbishop Usher have mistaken for the county of Cork in Ireland: Carte believes him to have been a native of Caerdiganshire, called Regio Ceretica, from Ceretus or Cereticus, an antient regulus of that country. Gwladis, the eldest daughter of Brychan, married Gwnlliw ap Glewissus, regulus of that part of antient Gwent which lies between the rivers Usk and Rhymny, then called Glewissig. Capgrave tells us, that Gunleus growing weary of the world, abdicated his government and retired to a cell, where, living with singular austerity, he supported the remainder of his life by the labour of his hands; but John of Tinmouth (who calls him a king of the Southern Britons) says, that after the death of his father, he being the eldest son, divided his kingdom into seven parts; six of which he gave his brethren, reserving to himself the other part, as well as the seigniory over the whole. Ystradgynlais, or the vale of Gunleus, is in Breconshire, on the the borders of Glamorganshire, and was perhaps so named from him. He was attended in his last moments by Dubricius bishop of Landaff, and died in the arms of his son Cadoc or Cattwg, on the twenty-ninth of March, A.D. 500. The churches of Llangunllo in Radnorshire, Nantgunllo in Caerdiganshire, and St. Woolos near Newport, in Monmouthshire, are consecrated to his memory. He left issue by his wife Gwladis, St. Cattwg, St. Cynidr and other children. St. Cattwg the wise, (as Owen in his Cambrian biography calls him) was the first who made a collection of the proverbs and maxims of the Britons: according to this author, he had a brother named Cammarch, to whom the church of Llangammarch ~ . . HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. 47 in Buallt was dedicated. He was educated under an Irish Saint called Tathai, who had opened a celebrated school in Gwent or Caerwent, the Venta Silurum of the Romans: having agreeably to the law of Gavelkind, inherited part of his father's lands, he founded on his own portion, the Abbey of Llancarvan in Glamorganshire; which he governed, and in which he exercised an unreserved system of hospitality; for Capgrave tells us, he daily sustained one hundred ecclesiastical persons, as many widows and as many other poor people, besides those who visited him : for though he was an abbot and had many monks under his government, he very properly and very prudently reserved a part of his father's principality, to be charitably distributed to such as were in need : he is said to have died in North Wales; authors differ as to the precise period: Harpsfield makes him alive in the year 570, but Cressy Says this is erroneous, as St. Dubricius is recorded to have been present at his, as well as his father's death: the inquiry at this time would hardly be worth pursuing, excepting that in a chronological point of view, it may be useful to establish the origin and foundation of those churches that have been dedicated to his memory, . and even this, by ninety nine out of a hundred of my readers, will be considered as of very little consequence: Gibbon however observes, that the antient legendaries deserve some regard, as they are obliged to connect their fables with the real history of their own times; and another author remarks, that in the grand collection of French historians, executed with a care and magnificence worthy of a great nation, the antient lives of Saints are inserted under each century or division, as equal vouchers with the antient historians. . . St. Cynidr, the brother of Cattwg, according to Hugh Thomas, (though George Owen Harry makes him a son of Caengar, and another MS. of Rhiengar, a daughter of Brychan) lived, as Cressy reports, a solitary life in the province of Glamorgan, in the same place where yet remains a châpel called St. Kenneth, and which country from him afterwards took the appellation of Sanghenith, or the lordship of St. Kenneth; although Camden, in his description of Glamorganshire, mentions West Gower as the place of his residence. For the history of his miracles, the pious legends of Capgrave must be consulted : he is said to have been buried at Glazbury in Radnorshire. The parish churches of Llangynidr and Aberescir” in Breconshire, are dedicated to him; though Ecton calls St. Mary, the patron Saint of the latter. w - * , -> - . - * * * . . . . Wrgren, *In 1460, Dewros ap Jenkin was collated by the bishop of St. David's (patron pro hac vice) to the living of Aberescir, by the description of “Ecclesia Sancti Kenedri de Aberescir.” Bishop's Register at Abergwili. tº 48 HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE, - # Wrgren, the second dau ghter of Brychan, married Iorwerth Hirſawdd, or Edward --- the tall and active, son of Tegonwy, son of Teon, son of Gwinau Daufreiddawd, or the brown double dreamer, son of Hwydeg, son of Rhän, son of Rhuddbaladr or red spear, son of Lary, son of Caswar Wledig, son of Beli mawr, or Beli the great, king of Britain. This Beli mawr was also the ancestor of Elistan Glodrydd, prince of Fferregs, and Justin ap Gwrgan, prince of Glamorgan. - Marchell or Marcella, the third daughter, married Gwrhir or Garhir, or according - to George Owen Harry, Wyn Hirfarfdrweh, or Wyn of the long and bushy beard. Gwtlith, (the fourth) is said to have lived at Llys-ronwy in Glamorganshire. Drynwin, (the fifth) was the wife of Cynfarch oer, or the cold, son of Meirchion căl-galed, or Meirchion the slender and hardy, a chieftain in the North of England; she bore in her womb, according to the Trioedd or Triads, “the blessed burden of Urien Reged,” king of Reged or Cumberland, and Eirddil his twin sister. This Urien was of high celebrity in the court of Arthur and a most valiant knight: he was afterwards elected to the sovereignty of Cumbria, and lived about the year 560. Many notices may be found of him in Evans's specimens of Welsh poetry, as well as in the British Triads: he was the most famous of all the kings of Cumbria, being the Urbgen of the additions to Nennius, and in his court flourished the three great poets, Aneurin Gwawdrydd, Taliesin and Llywarch hen. The first, in poems that are still extant, enumerates twelve pitched battles fought by Urien: that of Argoed Llwyfain or Elm-wood, is particularly described: it was fought with Flamddwyn or the Flame-bearer, as the Britons called Ida, the first Saxon king of Northum- berland: Owen, the son of Urien, then commanded his father's forces, as we find from the following lines: . . . . . . . . . . . - - “ Attorelwis Flamddwyn fawr drybestawd, - A ddodynt gyngwystion a ydynt parawd Yr attebwys Owain ddwyrain fossawd, Ni ddodyntiddynt, nidynt parawd; A Chenau måb Coelbyddai gymmwawg Ilew, Cyn y talai o wystl nebawd.” - - Literally translated thus, (or at least, as nearly as the two languages will permit): - Says Flamddwyn the great, rejoicing in victory, Will they give hostages 2 are they ready ? Owen of the uplifted stroke, answered, They'll not give hostages; they are not ready; - And Cenau the son of Coel will resemble an enraged lion, Before he gives hostages to any one, - ww. - * Flushed 2° * HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE, 49 “Flush'd with conquest Flamddwyn said, ... - . . Boastful at his army's head, 2 Strive not to oppose the stream; . . . Redeem your lives, your lands redeem. : Give me pledges, Flamddwyn cried; “Never;” Urien's son replied: Owen of the mighty stroke, Kindling as the hero spoke: Cenau, Coel's blooming heir, - Caught the flame and grasp'd the spear; Shall Coel's issue, pledges give, - To the insulting foe and live 2 - Never such be Britons shame: Never till this mangled frame, Vanquish’d like a lion lie, Drench'd in blood and bleeding die.”” It appears by another poem of Aneurin Gwawdrydd, intitled Marwnad Owain ap Urien Reged, or an elegy upon the death of Owen the son of Urien Reged, that the boastful Flamddwyn fell by the hand of Owen in this very battle. Of Cyngar and Rhynhyder, the sixth and seventh daughters of Brychan, we have no account. Eleri or Melari, the eighth, was the mother of Saint David the archbishop, according to Cressy; he says, Melari was another name for Nonnita; but our pedigrees make Eleri or rather Melari, wife to Caredig prince or regulus of - Cardigan and mother to Xanthus, Sandde or Sant, father of Saint David: the English writers have confounded these persons by supposing Melari to be Nôn or Nonnita, the mother of Saint David; whereas Nön was the daughter of one Gynyr, who lived at a place called Caerganch in Menevia, as old writings inform us. Melari is said to have had ten grand children, who were all Saints. George Owen Harry makes Helen the daughter of Brychan, to be the wife of Caredig son of Cynedda Wledig and mother of Sant the father of Saint David, whom Giraldus Cambrensis calls Sanctus. Gwaler, or rather as George Owen Harry and the Jesus college MS. call her, Gwawr (the dawn or Aurora) ninth daughter of Brychan was the wife of Elydr Llydanwyn, the younger brother of Cynfarch oer and mother to Llywarch hèn. This prince (for such he was) had a considerable territory in the North of England; he not only cultivated an acquaintance with the muses, but shone in arms, and was one of those who signalized themselves in an age remarkable in the history of Britain for terrible wars and devastations: Llywarch hēnt however took no part in the civil war, which brought on the catastrophe at Camlan so fatal to the Britons, in which - Arthur. # The sterling bullion of six British lines, - - - In English wire, through eight bright couplets shines. *Life of Llywarch hen, prefixed to his poems by Owen : London, 8vo, 1793. - so HISTORY W. OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. Arthur fell in 542: foreseeing the impending storm, he entered into a confederacy with his relation, Urieli king of Cúmberland and his valiant son Owen, to repel the incursions of the Saxons, who menaced the very existence of the British government. • \ - * , or . . . . . . I . . . . -- .- --~~ in the North: these persevering invaders having already possessed themselves of all that country to the East, called Deifr a Brynich or Deira and Bernicia. The latter was erected into a kingdom by Ida in the year 547, as the Saxon chronicle and all our historians affirm, except Matthew of Westminster, who places that event in the following year. Upon the death of Ida,” Ella the son of Iff assumed the title of king of Deira. Richard of Hexham, a Northumbrian writer in 1180, says, that Deira extended from the Humber to the Tees, and Bernicia from the Tees to the Tweed: they were both afterwards united by Ethelfred, who formed from them the kingdom of Northumberland. + . . Nothing contributed more towards the conquests of the Saxons than the divisions - that reigned among the Britons. It appears from the antient writers of that country, that they were much more ready to draw their swords upon one another, than to s employ them against the common enemy; they broke out into wars among them- selves and rebellion against their kings, upon the slightest pretences and upon quarrels; the subjects of which, appear at present to be trifling and almost ridiculous. Thus it was that the base intriguing Modred, destroyed the noble Arthur; the jealousy of Morgant was the cause of the death of Urien; and a foolish squabble about a lark's nest and a couple of dogs, occasioned the fatal battle of Arderydd in 577, between Aeddan ap Gafran Fradog, or the treacherous, and Gwenddolau the son of Ceidiaw the son of Arthur, a descendant of Coel, on the one side, and Rhydderch ap Tydwal on the other. Llywarch hen lost twenty four of his sons in these continued battles, and lived, as it is said, to the age of one hundred and fifty. His poems are plaintive and elegiac: several of them, particularly that in which he laments the death of these sons, have great merit; the English translation however of the latter by Mr. Elliot, published in Jones's reliques-of the bards, in my opinion, far sur- passes the original in poetic beauty. “See the warlike train advance, Skill'd to poise the pond’rous lance : . . . . . . . Golden chains their breasts adorn; - Sure for conquest were they born. * . . . . - ... . . . . Four and twice ten sons were mine, Used in battles front to shine : . -- But low in dust my sons are laid, . . . . Not one remains his sire to aid. . . . . Hold!: * A.D. 560. f Carte's history of England, vol. i. p. 210. . . . HISTORY OF BRECKN oCKSHIRE, - ji Hold Oh Hold my brain thy seat - How doth my bosom's monarch beat; Cease thy throbs perturbed heart, Whither would thy stretch'd strings start From frenzy dire and wild affright - Keep my senses thro' this night!” . Llywarch hèn died upon the banks of the Dee near Bala, in Merioneddshire, where is still a secluded spot called Pabell Llywarch hen, or Llywarch the old's tent or cot. Dr. Davies says, that in his time there was an inscription to his memory, to be seen on the wall of the church, wherein it was said, the venerable bard was interred; but the beautifications (I use a Gothic term to describe a Gothic act) of succeeding churchwardens, have long obliterated all traces of it. - Gwtfil, the tenth daughter of Brychan, was the wife of Cyngar (the son of Cyn- wawr, or rather of Cadell Deyrnllyg) and mother of Brochwel Yscythrog or Scethrog. - George Owen Harry calls her in one place, Tanglwst, and in another, Tywyl, the daughter of Cadell Deyrnllyg and mother of Brochwel Yscythrog, Dr. Powel, in a note* on Giraldus Cambrensis, calls her, Tydvael the wife of Congen, the son of Cadell prince of Powis and mother of Brochwel, sirnamed 'Scythroc, who slew Ethelfred king of the Northumbrians upon the river Dee, about the year 603: Hugh Thomas here, charges Dr. Powel with gross errors, both in facts and ehronology. In the first place (he says) it is evident, he (Dr. Powel) has mistaken one daughter of Brychan for another; in the next, he (Hugh Thomas) affirms, that Ethelfred king of Northumberland, so far from having been slain by Brochwel in the battle of the Dee, was victorious there and alive in 617, when he was slain by Redwald king of the East Angles; t and lastly, he tells us, that it was extremely improbable that Brochwel Yscythrog, who was only the grandson of Brychan, should be living at the - commencement of the seventh century. According to the old British chronicle, the battle of Chester above alluded to, between Brochwel and Æthelfred was fought in the year 593; some, with Dr. Powel, place it in 603; not considering that Bede, expressly says, that in this very year, AEthelfred was engaged in another part of his dominions, repelling the incursions of the Dalreudini. The Saxon chronicle carriès. it down to 607, and the Ulster annals to 613; but at whichever of these periods it. happened, Powel, it should seem, is incorrect; for it is universally agreed that the father of Brochwel, whether called Cyngar or Congen, married one of the daughters - * Itin. Camb. Lib. 1. cap. 2. * . t In this account of the death of Æthelfred, Hugh Thomas is confirmed by the English historians, H2. of 32 HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE, of Brychan Brecheiniog, whose death is generally placed in 450, though perhaps it was some few years subsequent to that time: his paternal grandfather Cadell, sirnamed Deyrnllyg, as Nennius” records, was converted and baptized by St. Ger- manus; at which time he had nine sons, of whom, Congen or Cyngen, as his successor in the principality, was probably the eldest; all this must have happened before the year 448, for in that year St. Germanus died at Ravenna. + Cyngen then, at the very latest, must have been born in the year 438, probably much earlier: this however forms a period of one hundred and sixty five years between his birth and the year 603, when his son Brochwel fought with Æthelfred on the river Dee. But the Doctor (in his edition of his Welsh history, page 23) extends his life fourteen years longer, and places him at the head of an army as late as theyear 617; this (supposing his father to be thirty years of age when his son was born) would make Brochwel no less than one hundred and nineteen years of age; a circumstance we must allow extremely improbable. Hugh Thomas says, there were three Brochwels: he says, one Brochwel lived in the reign of Aurelius Ambrosius, to whom heralds after he had defeated Hengist, (whose arms were a horse saliant) gave three horses' heads coup’d at the neck, and another Brochwel lived about the year 617, one hundred and fifty six years after Brochwel Yscythrog. - The name of the eleventh daughter in this M.S. has been imperfectly transmitted to us: George Owen Harry calls her Gwenfrewi, and says, she married Cadrod Calchfynidd, lord of Dunstable, Coleshill and Northampton, and proprietor of an extensive tract of chalk hills; from whence he took the name of Calchfynidd, or Cadrod of the chalk mountain: his grandson Tegvan was a Saint in the Romish calendar, and gave name to Llandegfan in Anglesea, where Rowland f informs us. he had once a cell. St. Tydecho had also his cloisters there, and is by some reckoned. to be the patron Saint of the place: St. Ælian, from whom Llanaelian in Anglesea, was nephew of St. Tydecho. - - . . - Of Eitech, the twelfth daughter, we know nothing further, than that she resided. at Towyn in Merioneddshire: George Owen Harry takes no notice of her. Tangwystl Tydvil lived in Glamorganshire. Llwyd says, her name should be written Tangvistil, and thinks a word has been omitted in the eopy from which he transcribed, or probably that Tydvil was only an Agnomen: she suffered martyrdom, and from her we have Merthyr Tydvil, a parish in Glamorganshire adjoining Breconshire on the South West. According to Owen $(upon the authority of the Pantliwyd or Llansanor MS.) she met her father, when he was an old man, .* ... . . . . attended * Hist. of Britain, chap. 33, 34. ~ . .. : Mon. Antiq. p. 156. Dublin, 4to. 1723. - - + Collier's Hºst. Dict. Sub verb. Germanus. § Camb. Biog, Williams, Strand, 1803, p. 33. HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE, 53 attended by some of her brothers; whereupon they were beset by a party of Pagan Saxons, and Gwyddelian Ffichti, and she and her father and brother Rhun Drem- rudd were murdered; but Nefydd the son of Rhön, then a youth, exerted himself in raising the force of the country and afterwards put the enemy to flight. Goleuddydd, (the light or dawning of day) Brychan's fourteenth daughter, married Tutwawl Bybyr, or Tutwawl the valiant, a prince of some territory in Scotland, according to Mr. Llwyd, - - - The name of the fifteenth daughter is lost: “ van ferch Frachan, honho oedd fam Aedan, fab Gwawrean Fredawc,” says the MS.; i. e. This daughter was the mother of Aeddan, son of Gwawrean Fredawc. George Owen Harry informs us, that Llian the daughter of Brychan was married to Gafran the father of Aeddan Frad- fawr, or Aiddan the traitor. Moses Williams, in a note upon the Aºrae Cambro- Britannicae, published in his edition of Humphrey Llwyd's commentariolum, Says, that Gafran ap Aeddan Fradog, ap Gafran, ap Dyfnawi hēn, was married to Llian the daughter of Brychan. This is the same Aeddan who was engaged with Gwen- ddolau in the battle of Arderydd, in which he was defeated and compelled to fly for safety to the Isle of Man. gº • - - Gwen or Gwenllian was married to Llyr Merini lord of Gloucester, son to Meirchion cul-gadarn or cul-galed, and elder brother to Cynfarch-oer and Elydr Llydanwyn: she was mother to Cradoc Fraich-fras, whom we shall soon see posses- sing Breconshire, and probably claiming under her : Llewelyn Offeiriad says, she was buried in Talgarth. - J Of Felii, Tybie, Emmrhaith and Rhyneiden, we have no account or tradition, save that Tybie was buried in Caermarthenshire, in a place called from her, Llany- bie or Llandebie, and Rhyneiden at Cydweli in the same county. - - Cledy the twenty first daughter, lived in Emlyn in Caermarthenshire, where the genealogists of South Wales say, a church was dedicated to her, called Clydeu Ol" Clyday; but Brown Willis affirms Saint Christiolus to be the patron Saint of that parish, who Rowland * tells us, was the son of Owen ap Ynyr, a nobleman of Armorica, and to whom Llangristiolus in Anglesea was dedicated. Owen makes Christiolus to be the son of Hywel Wychan, the son of Hywel, the son of Emyr Orº Ynyr of Armorica. Of the seond Gwen, no further account is given in the MS. than that she died in the Isle of Anglesea. - - Brychan's twenty third daughter is called in different MSS. by the names of Alud, Elud, Elyued and Alumed ; which latter appellation, the monkish writers, by a mistake - - - - . easily - #. Mon. Antiq. 154. - 84 HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. - easily accounted for, latinized into Almeda or Almedha; she lived, as we are informed, at Ruthin in Glamorganshire (perhaps Roath or Ruderi) and suffered martyrdom, upon a hill near Brecknock, called Penginger.” This hill is now generally known by the name of Slwch, though part of it still retains its old appel- lation. Penginger is a corruption of Pencefny gaer, i.e. the summit of the ridge of the fortification; from an old British camp, the remains of which are still visible: not far from the camp, on the North side, formerly stood this chapel, or as Giraldus Cambrensis calls it, stately edifice; it is now compleatly ruinated and can only be traced by tradition to a spot where a heap of stones and an aged yew tree, with a wall at its root, mark its scite: t it. is about one mile Eastward of Brecon, on the left hand side of the road leading from that place to a farm house called Slwch. According to Owen, another church was consecrated to her memory at Mold in Flintshire. She was undoubtedly the Almedha of Giraldus Cambrensis, who, particularly notices the “Basilica” upon Penginger. “This devout virgin (says he) rejecting the proposals of an earthly prince, who sought her in marriage, and espousing herself to the eternal king, consummated her life by a triumphant martyrdom. The day of her solemnity is celebrated every year on the first day of August:” he then proceeds to record the miracles of the Saint and the faith and religious phrenzy of her votaries; upon which his annotator is a little waggish and hints that they might now and then have taken a cup too much. Cenai, Ceneu or Keyna is the patroness of Llangeney in Brecknockshire ; of this sainted lady, Cressy (the Coryphaeus of monkish history) treats at large, and as her church, as well as the place of her habitation during the latter part of her life, are so well known and ascertained, she has some claim upon our attention as an old acquaintance and domiciliated countrywoman. I shall therefore make a short, extract from the ponderous folio of this writer: “she (St. Keyna, so he calls. her). was of royal blood, being the daughter of Braganus prince of Brecknockshire. When she came to ripe years, many nobles sought her in marriage, but she utterly refused that state; having consecrated her virginity to our Lord by a perpetual vow ; for which cause, she was afterwards by the Britons called Keyn wiri, Ś that is, Keyna. - - - the • * Cressy's Ch, history, - . . - -- i In a parchment roll in the augmentation office ture is called the Chapel of St. Alice in the parish of - , containing a list of the possessions of the religious Brecknock. It fell down in the latter end of the *houses in the time of Henry the eighth, this struc- 17th-century. - - : Camb. Biography, 116. § Ceneu, forwyn or vorwyn. HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. 55 the virgin: at length she determined to forsake her country and find out some desert place, where she might attend to contemplation. Therefore directing her journey beyond Severn, and there meeting 3. woody place, she made her request to the prince of that country, that she might be permitted to serve God in that solitude. His answer was, that he was very willing to grant her request, but that the place did so swarm with serpents, that neither man or beast could inhabit it: but she constantly replied, that her firm trust was in the name and assistance of Almighty God to drive all that poisonous brood out of that region. Hereupon the place was granted to the holy virgin, who presently prostrating herself to God, obtained of him. to change the serpents and vipers into stones; and to this day, the stones in that region doe resemble the windings of serpents through all the fields and villages, as if they had been framed so by the hand of the engraver.” Camden, who notices this story in his account of Somersetshire, says, that the place is now called Keyns- ham, between Bath and Bristol, where abundance of that fossil, termed by the naturalists Cornu Ammonis, is frequently dug up : he is not quite an infidel, though not perfectly convinced of the truth of the origin and cause of these petrifactions of - serpents, but calls them miracles of sporting” nature, and seems to express some degree of surprize at one which he saw dug up from a Quarry near the place he has been describing, “which (says he) represented a serpent rolled up into a spire; the head of it stuck out into the outward surface, and the end of the tayle terminated in the center.” A similar miracle is related of St. Hilda, at Whitby in Yorkshire. But to return to our holy virgin: Cressy proceeds to tell us, upon the authority of Capgrave, that “after many years spent in this solitary place, and the fame of her sanctity every where divulged, and many Oratories built. by her; her nephew Saint Cadoc, performing a pilgrimage to the mount of St. Michael, met there with his blessed aunt St. Keyna; at whose sight, he being replenished with joy, and being desirous to bring her back to her own country; the inhabitants of that region would not permit him; but afterwards by the admonition of an angel, the holy mayd returned to the place of her nativity; where, on the top of a hillock, seated at the - foot of a high mountain, she made a little habitation for herself, and by her prayers to God, obtained a spring there to flow out of the earth, which by the merits of the holy virgin, affordeth health to divers infirmities.” She is said to have departed this hife on the eighth day of the Ides of October, A. D. 490, and to have been buried in her own Oratory by her nephew St. Cadoc. Sometime previous to her death, we . * - 3Pé * The Idea of nature's working or sporting a miracle, is certainly Camden's own; though it must be ad- mitted that the sports of nature are sometimes most whimsical. - . . . * “. 56 - HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. are told, she had a prospect of her eternal happiness in a future world in a vision; . being ministered to and comforted by angels: to her nephew St. Cadoc, she thus prophesied; “this is the place above all others beloved by me; here my memory shall be perpetuated; this place I will often visit in spirit, if it may be permitted me, and I am assured it shall be permitted me, because our Lord hath granted me this place as a certain inheritance. The time will come when this place shall be inhabited by a sinful people, which, notwithstanding, I will violently root out of this seat. My tombe shall lye a long time unknown untill the coming of other people, whom by my prayers, I shall bring hither; them will I protect and defend, and in this place shall the name of the Lord be blessed for ever.” These good strangers are not yet arrived as her tomb has not hitherto been discovered; though the well of St. Ceneu is known and the situation of her Oratory may be traced, but a description of them is reserved to that part of this work which relates to the parochial history of the county. Dwynwen, the youngest daughter of Brychan, according to the MS. in the British museum, though omitted by Llewelyn Offeiriad, was a Saint of such celebrity, that the shade of David ap Gwylym, frowning while I hesitate, imperiously requires me to notice her, as some atonement for the silence of Llewelyn the priest, who for this instance of hisinattention will be consigned to eternal infamy, unless he avails himself. of the benefit of clergy. A church, from her called Llanddwyn,” was built and dedicated to the Saint in the Isle of Anglesea, in the year of Christ 590; she is the Welsh Venus or Goddess of love, “Dwynwen Santes, Duwies y cariad, merch Brychan!” holy Dwynwen, Goddess of love, daughter of Brychan, says David ap Gwylym. Her shrine was much resorted to by desponding swains and love sick maidens, who with many a suppliant offering, intreated her propitious smiles and golicited her intercessions and good offices with the objects of their affections. - “These Garlands ever green and ever fair, - “With vows were offer'd and with solemn pray’r. A thousand altars in her temple smok'd; 2 A thousand bleeding hearts her pow'r invok'd.” The bard of Glamorganshire f has a poem or invocation to Dwynwen, which has been translated by Owen and is inserted in Jones's second volume of the reliques of the Welsh bards: not being at this moment in the same predicament as the British poet, or feeling upon the subject, as he probably did, when he wrote it, it appears to me to be an unconnected rhapsody, and little better than nonsense, either in Welsh or English. I would not here however, be understood to depreciate the writing; * Rowland's Mon, Antiq. t David ap Gwylym's poems, p. 154, HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. - . . 57 A gwrdd drwst, a gerdda draw, writings of David ap Gwilym, or be supposed to be insensible to the beauties or even the sublimity of most of his poems: that upon thunder can hardly be equalled in any language, and another upon the wind is not excelled by any compo- 'sition yet known to the public: I cannot resist the temptation of recommending it to the attention of my countrymen, accompanied with nearly a literal English translation: I once intended to have given it a metrical dress, but that would only Yr wybrwynthelynt hylaw, be an attempt to clip the wings of the wind or to confine their flight with a cobweb. The poet employs this messenger to convey his sentiments to his mistress. Wind of the sky offleetest course, Of awful sound, who roamest abroad: | Chilling champion of tremendous voice; | The mighty one of the world, though without wings or feet'; Most wonderful art thou; how marvellously extended thy circuit | When thou comest from the storehouse of the firmament, thouart | And yet how swiftly dost thou fly | At this hour over yonder hill ! . - ! . Declare to the constant theme of my song, Dy hyntryw ogleddwynt glyn ; Och wr' dos o Uwchaeron - of the anticlimax: the bard here, wantoneth with the *- wind, and the greatest poets when in love, must be allowed “desipere in loco,” anglice, to be sometimes O bantri’r wybr heb untroed, Nag offia, er y Bwa-bach. Gwroerias wyd, garw eisain, Drud byd, heb droed heb adain; Uthr wyd mor aruthri'th roed, A buaned yr 'hedy Yr awr hon dros y from fi! Dywed i'm divydemyn, Yn glaer deg, yn eglur don; Nagaro' di, nageiriach, Noethid dwyn cyd nithid dail; Ni'th ditia neb ni'th attail Nallu rhugl, na llaw rhaglaw, Nallafm glas, nallif, na glaw. Nºth boddir ni'th rybuddiwyd. Nidaiynglyn, dionglwyd : - Ni'th ladd mab mam, o amhwyll, Ni'th lysg tån ni'th lysga twyll; Nid rhaid march buan danad, Neu bont araber na bâd. Nith ddell swyddogna theulu I’th ddydd, nithwydd blanwyddblu. Ni'th wyl drem i'th wal dra-mawr. E’th glyw mil, nith y glaw mawr * In Caerdiganshire. Och Gwr. This is a pecu. Welsh, will not bear translation. - - liarity of expression, which, though not improper in sº. f This was his rival, and unfortunately for him, the husband of his mistress Morfydd. It must be acknowledged that in these lines there is something [footless, The purpose of thy journey, thou northern blast of the vale, Oh my man! Hie thee from Uwchaeron, * *. ſ With uninterrupted course and audible voice: #Stop not, hesitate not, - - | Fear not little Crook-back. - . . . r w | Thou who sweepest the high ground, and scatterest the leaves; | No one can question, none impede thee, * - - No! not the willing host, or the arm of the leader, The bright sword, the torrent or the rain. Floods cannot overwhelm thee, no one can say to thee “depart Bonds cannot confine thee, thy course cannot be described by The fury of man cannot destroy thee, | Nor can fire burn or stratagem mislead thee. . - - Thou lackest not the swiftness of the steed to convey thee, | Or bridge or boat to carry thee over the deep waters. - The officer cannot arrest, or the householder compel thy appear. On a day certain; Oh thou that fannest the leaves on the tops of the The eye cannot follow thee to thy distant couch. - | And yet a thousand hear thee; : nest of the mighty rain [angles: ancel [trees, Neitivr very insipid. I omit the two next lines, as they seem to be totally unconnected, and to be thrustin, head and shoulders. In the two, beginning with “Noe. thiddwyn,” the poet is himself again. . # “Nithy glaw mawr.” This epithet, uncouth, as it may appear in the English language, is pecu. liarly happy in the Welsh. No Briton can hear it without rapture. - . . . . • * .. . hence.”; $8. HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE, - Neitivr wybr ; natur ebrwydd - - | Thou who vaultest along the firmament, of nature impetuous $. Neitivrgwiw, dros naw tir gwydd: who lightly springest over the forests : - - Rhad Duw wyd ar hyd daear: | Thou art the gift of God upon the face of the earth : Rhuad blin doriad biaen dar; With roaring force thou breakest the tops of the oak ; Sych natur, creadur craft | Dessiccating is thy quality, thou active created one Sereniog wybr siwrnai gobraft Of the starry sky; in thy wide excursions Seuthyddar foreuddydd fri. Thou often dost blast the hopes of the rising dawn. Seithugar eisingrug Songri : With thy loud voice thouscatterest the heaps of husks: saerdyghin ym miny mor, | Thouart the fabricator of the tempeston the shores of the ocean. Drythyll fab ar draethell för. And sportest as a wanton o'er the beach. Awdwr blinderoeddydwyd, | Thou art the author of great Sorrows, Heu-wr dylydwr dailwyd. | Thou Sower and pursuer of the leaves. - * Hoywddwr breiniwrhyrddiwr bryn. Ruler of the troubled waters, assailant of the mountain, Hwyl bronwyllt heli bronwyn. How resistless thy force, travelling o'er the white bosom'd deep, - Hydoeddy byd a hedy. - Thy flight expands over the whole face of the earth. Hiny fron, bydd heno fri.” Gale of the mountain, Oh this night be fleet ! The author then becomes love sick again, consequently stupid, and sometimes. ludicrous for the remainder of the poem ; but I regret exceedingly that the idiom of the two languages is so different, that in many places the author suffers much by translation: it is hardly possible, frequently to convey his meaning without much circumlocution, and the harmony of his metre, which is often inimitable, is entirely lost. - * * - - Before I return to the heroes of the race of Brychan, it may perhaps be proper that I should briefly notice the list of his children given in the Myfyrian Archaeology. This catalogue differs considerably, both in the names and number, from those I have followed, and is intitled “Bonedd y Saint, neu achau Saint ynys Prydain,” i. e. the genealogy of the Saints, or the pedigree of the Saints of the island of Britain. It is said to be a collection or selection from many old MSS. by Lewis Morris, in the year 1760. The names of the sons of Brychan given in this publication, from the authorities there shortly recapitulated, were, 1. Cynawc, 2. Cledwyn, 3. Dingad 4. Arthen, 5. Cyfiefyr, 6. Rhain, 7. Dyfman, 8. Gerwyn, 9. Cadawe, 10, Mathaiarnº 11. Pascen, 12, Neffei, 13. Pabiali, 14. Llecheu, 16. Cynbryd, 16. Cynfran, - 17. - Hychan, 18. Dyfric, 19, Cynin, 20. Docſan, 21. Rhawin, 22. Rhön, 23. Cledawc, and 24. Cayan.—The daughters, 1. Gwladis, 2. Arianwen, 3.Tangiwst, 4. Mechell, 5. Nevin, 6. Gwawr, 7. Gwrgon, 8. Eleri, 9, Llian, 10. Nefydd, 11. Rhiengar, 12. Goleuddydd, 13. Gwenddydd, 14. Tydieu, 15. Elined, 16. Ceindrych, 17. Gw ©il 2, 18. Cenedlon, 19. Cymorth, 20. Cledai, 21. Dwynwen, 22. Ceinwen, 23. Tydfil, 24. Enſail, 25. Hawystl, and 26. Tybie; in all, fifty children. - Of the two first sons of the prince of Brecknock, much the same account is given as in Llewelyn Offeiriad's MS.; Dingad is said to have had a church dedicated to * : ~ * * {k} ſº, HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE, 39 him in Gwent-is-coed, where he died; Arthen” (the fourth son, according to Bonedd y Saint) was buried in the Isle of Man: according to Thomas Truman's MS. he had a church dedicated to him in Gwentilwg, which was demolished by the Saxons. Cyflefyr (probably Cyſlidr, the grandson in the other MS.) was murdered by the Saxons,t and died in Cardiganshire. Rhain (says this catalogue) was a Saint who lived in Lincolnshire, it and had a church dedicated to him in the Isle of Man. Dyſman lies at Llandyfman in Anglesea; Gerwyn in Cornwall; Cadawc in Frances Mathaiarn in Cardiganshire; Pascen (the brother of Cyflydr, and grandson of Brychan, according to Llewelyn) with his brothers Neffei and Pabiali, went to Spain, there became legislators Š and were afterwards enrolled among the Saints of that country; Llecheu lived at T regayan in Anglesea, or as others, at Llanllecheu in Ewyas; Cynbryd, Cymryd or Cyfryd at Llandulas, and was slain by the Saxons at a place from him called Bwlch Cynbryd; Cynfran at Rhôs in Denbighshire; Hychan in Dyffryn Clwyd; Dyfrig|in Caerdiganshire; Cynin at Llangynin in Caermarthen- shire; “as to Docſan, Rhawin and Rhön, (says Dr. Thomas Williams, from whose MS. book Lewis Morris took the names of these three last Saints) I know not where they lie;” but the Glamorganshire list above referred to, calls Docſan, Docwan, and attributes his death, like that of most of the other martyrs, to the Pagan Saxons, at Merthyr Docſan in Dyfed, a church consecrated to his memory," - and Rhawin and Rhön are said to have been slain on a bridge called Penrhun in Merthyr, while gallantly defending it against the Saxons. Cledawc, it is agreed by all MSS. was buried at Clodock in Herefordshire, and Cayan, mentioned in the note to the Bonedd y Saint, was of Anglesea, where a church was dedicated to him, as were probably the churches of Langan in Caermarthenshire and Lanquian near Cowbridge in Glamorganshire: the Llansanor catalogue calls this last son, Cai, and says, his church at Abercai was destroyed by the Danes, or as they are called, y Gened ddu, or the black race. *. Of Gwladis, the first daughter of Brychan, the same account is given as in the Jesus college MS.; Arianwen, the second, in the Bonedd y Saint, is said to have married Iorwerth Hir-flawdd, and to be mother to Canawc the great; T anglwst or Tangwyst, to Cyngen ap Cadell Deyrnllyg, by whom she had Brochwel Yscythrog, * There is a hill near Aberystwith , called Rhiw Arthen. Quaere, if Ruardean in Gloucestershire be, - not from the same Source - . . . - - - + Truman MS. . . . . . - # #Quaere, whether Wranby, Wrangle and Wragby in Lincolnshire, do not take their names from Rhain. ... . . § “Pennrheithiau.” • This Dyflig is (I conceive) erroneously said by (it is asserted) was born at F ishguard in Pembroke- the Truman MS. to be Dyfrig Archescob Llandaaf, shire, and was probably tutor to Dyfrigap Brychan, or Dubricius Archbishop of Llandaff, Dubricius * Merthyr Dovan is in Glamorganshire, ~ 60 HISTORY OF BRECKNoCKSHIRE, ,- Maig and Jeuaf, Mechell, the fourth daughter, (the eldest as others) to Ynyr Farº drwch; Neſyn to Cynfarch-oer, by whom she had Urien Reged; Gwawr to Elidr, ** Llydanwyn; Gwrgon (the –ragon of Llewelyn Offeiriad, to Cadrod Calchfynidd; Eleri (as in the other MS.) to Caredig; Llian to Gafran or Gawran, the son of Aeddan, the son of Gafran, the son of Dyfnwal the old; Nefydd to Tydwal Beſt: Llannefydd in Denbighshire was dedicated to her; to whom Rhiengar was married is not stated; she is however said to have been mother to Ceinydr, a Saint in Melenydd: Goleuddydd was a Saint at Llanheseyn in Gwent; Gwenddydd or Gwawrddydd, a name of nearly the same meaning as that of her next preceding sister, lived a holy life at Towyn Merionedd; though others, under the name of Gwawrddydd, say, she was the wife of Cadell Deyrnllyg and the mother of Brochwel Yscythrog; Tydieu lived at Ogmore or Cappel Ogwr: Elined, at Mould in Flintshire; Ceindrych in Caer Golawn; Gwen in Talgarth, where she was murdered by the Pagan” Saxons; but whether Talgarth in North or South Wales is not mentioned; Cenedlon in Mynydd y Cwmwd; Cymorth with her sister Cledai, in Emlyn in Caermarthenshire; Ceinwen, whom George Owen Harry calls Cayndeg, a name precisely of the same import, both meaning “of great beauty or fairness,” was of Anglesea; where she had a cloister Ón the scite of the present church of Llangeinwen, which was dedicated to her; Tydvil lived in Merthyr Tydvil; nothing is known of Envail the twenty fourth daughter in this list; Hawystl was a Saint who lived at Caer Hawystl (supposed to be Awst) in Gloucestershire, and the youngest daughter, f : - Which of these MSS. or indeed whether either of them be accurate, I do not pretend absolutely to determine; Llewelyn Offeiriad's seems to be nearest the historical truth; as the list in the Myfyrian Archaeology makes the offspring of Brychan to be improbably numerous, and appears to introduce some of his grand- - children among his children. From the funerals of these Saints, I return to the company of the two eldest legitimate sons of Brychan, between whom the little kingdom of Brecknock was again divided into two districts, called Brecheiniog and Cwmwd, afterwards Cwmwd Cantreff Selyff; the rulers over both of which provinces, styled themselves brenhin-, oedd or reguli. Genealogists differ as to the seniority of these two sons. The , pedigrees in the British museum make Clydwyn the eldest, while that of Llewelyn Offeiriad, (on which I principally rely) as well as the MS. legend in the Cottonian. 2. – library, calls Drem, Drem-rudd or Rhain, the eldest, and Clydwyn the next; the latter of whom had two sons, Clydawc and Pedita; both became Saints, and with them his line ends according to this M.S.: it is probable that the Oxford document. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . is HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. . . º 61. is correct, notwithstanding the majority are in favor of Clydwyn; for we hear nothing of his descendants; while we find those of Drem possessing the largest, richest and most fertile part of the country, for centuries after him, and even to the time when. they were ousted by the Norman conquerors, or until they came by intermarriage to the posterity of Cradoc Fraich-fras. . - The line of boundary, which I conceive divided the Cwmwd or Cwmwd-Cantreff. Selyff, from what would now be called the remainder of Brecknockshire, commenced on the river Wye on the North; thence along the Western confines or boundary of £rickadarn; afterwards to Gwenddwr ; then in a direction from North East to South. West, to the head of the river Brân, leaving Merthyr-Cynog, Aberescir" and of course Brecknock to the East,in the kingdom or district of the Cwmwd; from whence it turned Southward, leaving Llanfynach, (which we find as far down as the beginning of the eighteenth century, in the possession of the descendants of Drem) and afterwards Cantreff, in the same division as Brecknock. From the head of the Brân, after crossing the Usk, this line ran in the same direction, and traced the present boundary between the hundreds of Devynnock and Penkelley, and ended on the confines of Glamorganshire. If this was the case, it is, not improbable that the chief town or residence of the reguli of Brecknock, prior to Brychan, was at Trecastle and Llywel; the latter of which places, signifies the resort or resting place of the army : + this is the only reason I can assign, for their being ever since united and appurtenant to the town of Brecknock; to which Bernard Newmarch at the time of its erection, attached all the privileges, and annexed the possessions of the old town of Caerfan : indeed the legend of Brychan seems to confirm this opinion; for though it by no means proves that there was no such town as Benni, in the days of Tewdrig, (in fact we know there was one at that place long prior to his time) yet it mentions the residence of Brychan at Benni upon his arrival from Ireland, as an historical fact deserving of notice: from which it may be inferred, without any great stretch of conjecture, that he was the first who made that place the metropolis of his kingdom; we are likewise told in the same MS. that Tewdrig and his court, to avoid a pestilence, removed to Bryn-gwin near Llanfaes, which if he lived at Benni, would not have answered his purpose; the distance from thence to Llanfaes. not being much above two miles; whereas. Trecastle is near ten miles, off, and the difference of climate between the two places, is very material and may be easily perceived. - - . We must not expect to hear much if any thing of the actions and exploits of Rhain or Drem at this. distance of time; but I conceive, as the MS. legend above referred to, asserts, that he was buried at Llandevailog near Brecon, and that the - - stone *Aberescir was considered as a mesne lordship under that of Cantreſſ-Selyff, so late as the year 1608. - t Liu-wal or Llu-weli. . º 62 HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE, stone mentioned in Gough's Camden and supposed to cover the remains of Brochwel Yscythrog, was meant to commemorate the interment of Rhain. A " - Of his descendants we have barely the names, until we come to Einon the son of Selyff, from whom the Cwmwd was called Cantreſſ-Selyff, and of him all we know is, that he had one only child, a daughter named Elinor, who intermarrying with Maenarch ap Dryffin, united the lines of Brychan and Cradoc, and the two districts into which Brecknock had been divided since his death, into one kingdom and government. The lives and exploits of these little chieftains or kinglings, are now hid in impenetrable darkness; a darkness which there is not the smallest prospect or hope of dispelling, further than that from the information of the Concilia,” by Sir Henry Spelman, we learn, that at a Synod held at Landaff by Gwrvan the tenth bishop of that diocese, t Tydyr the son of Rhain or Rain, king of Brecknock, was excommunicated for homicide and perjury, in having slain Elgistl the son of Awst - or Augustus, King of Brecknock, his first cousin, contrary to his oath, and that he was compelled to make his peace with the church by a considerable donation to the see of Landaff; we also hear, that at an earlier period, this Awst and his sons Eliud and Rhiwallon, probably as a compensation for a similar offence, and from motives equally pious, gave to the same bishoprick in the time of Eudaf or Oudoceus, Š the whole territory of Llancors or Llangorse, (called by bishop Godwin, || incorrectly, Llancorran) and by another grant Llangurvael; another document, preserved in the Monasticon," states, that Tudor” and his son Elyssed, Elissai or Elijah, king of Brecknock, were forced into a composition for an affront offered to Lybiau, bishop of Landaff, by a grantitt of the extensive vill of Llanvihangel-trefeerrian to the same church. The nature of this affront was somewhat singular: it seems that the prince was accused of leaving the prelate alone, in his monastery of Llangorse; having first deprived him of his dinner by force of arms: the angry bishop and his family next day left the place, having first hurled a curse and perpetual anathema at the head of the royal freebooter, for his impious robbery and the rudeness of his conduct, and afterwards he excommunicated him in a full synod of his clergy. For some time the bishop was inexorable; but at length, through the mediation of Lunverth or Lunverd, bishop of Saint David's, he was restored into the pale of the church and - * Page 386. # A. D. 897, or as Llewelyn Offeiriad, 895. - # Here we see that both these chieftains are called Vol. 3. p. 195, 196. Appendix, No. VIII. kings of Brecknock, although their territory was *The wordet, is omitted in the copy in the Mon- certainly the Cwmwd only. Brecheiniog, (the asticon, by which means the reader may be misled, other division) was then under the government of and induced to suppose Tudor to be the son of a descendant of Cradoc Fraich-fras. - Elyssai or Elijah; instead of which, he was his § Appendix, No. VII. father. G - . - |De praesul, p. 621. - tt Appendix, No, IX, his HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. 63 his atonement accepted. This vill* is now not known, but it must have been part of Llanvihangel-Cwmdu in Breconshire, or Llanvihangel-Crucorney in Monmouth- shire : it is thus described in the grant, “the bounder of the said land is from the highway on the South by the thorn bush; from thence to the river Tanguel, which is from the North, and from thence through a river to the East, as far as the well of Chenea; afterwards from the well of Chenea, through the dry valley which leads - * S * upwards, as far as the highway which is on the South, where it began.” The name of Llanvihangel Tricornel, Crucornel or Crucorney, induces one to suppose this parish to have been the tract granted by Tudor; on the other hand, if by the river Tanguel, the Rhiangoll and the well of Chenea, St. Ceneu's well are meant, the boundary here described seems to fix the granted tract to be Llanvihangel-Cwmdu, formerly perhaps called Llanvihangel-tref-y-caerau, from the number of fortifications included in it; and if so, all the country from thence to the Grwyney was conveyed by this document. - z Asserius Menevensist informs us, that Elised the son of Tewdwr, who joined in and consented to this gift of his father, being attacked by the sons of Rodri mawr, or Roderick the great, willingly submitted to the government of Alfred. The authority of such an author, living at the time, though principally in the court of Alfred, cannot be denied; but the supremacy of the Saxon monarchs must have continued for a very short period; probably no longer than during some squabble between the little king; of Brecknock and his natural lord paramount, Cadell prince of South Wales. - - - \ - Clydawn *In the appellation of vill, cities and boroughs occasion to describe by their particular names; are included. The boundaries were not ascertained because there is scarce any place in England which by walls, but by a compass of fields, large districts is not within the limits of some vill; though of lands, some hamlets, (from an old Saxon word - there be certain priviledged places within vills, Ham or Hom, a circuit or territory) and divers which are not reputed to be part or parcels of other limits; as rivers, water-courses, wood lands such vills. - . . . . . and wastes or commons, which there is now no Fortescue de Eaudibus, &e. Ed. of 1775, with Selden's notes, p. 74, 75. + De AElfredi Reb. Gest. p. 15. " . - : Williams, in his history of Monmouthshire, by Baron : in this however he is mistaken : there is (p. 107) has very properly observed, that the dignity little, if any analogy between the rank, the powers of Tywysog, Dux or Duke, from tywys, to lead, or the privileges of the present, or even the antient was among the Britons superior to Brenhin, and barons of England, (great as they were) and those that while they retained their independence, their of the reguli of Wales, “ within the limits of their sovereign was called Tywysog, not brenhin or king: little reign”; over the subjects whom they governed, he might have added, that what the English call their sway, was perfectly despotic, and even their the principality, we denominate Tywysogaeth, the submission to the prince, continued only during Dutchy or Dukedom, and the person who rules times of general danger, upon the attacks of the over it, tywysog or duke or general : if (says he) common enemy, or while it could be enforced by the early historians had attended to these circum- superior numbers, and it was never even attempted stances, they would have rendered the word brenhin to be systematically defined or accurately described. 64 HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. - Clydawn succeeded his father in the government of the Western and most mountainous part of Breconshire: his name is written variously in different MSS. Clytgwyn, Clewin and Kli cwn, and he is (as before observed) said to be the eldest legitimate son of Brychan. It appears by the books of Bodeulwyn in Anglesea, in the possession of Evan John Wyn and of Dr. Thomas Williams, (bºth written about the year 1578, and referred to in the Bonedd y Saint) that Clydwyn was a warlike prince and conquered all South Wales: with this concise history of his life and exploits we must now be satisfied, and proceed to his son Clydawc, Clitanc or Cledawc, who not having his father's talents or fondness for fighting; but being (as Cressy says) a man of peaceful and religious character, was for his piety inrolled among the list of British Saints. According to the Bonedd y Saint, he was buried at “Caer Gledawcyn Lloegr,” or Clodock camp in England; though, why this place should be thus described, it is difficult to say, inasmuch as the parish of Clodock is - upon the borders of Wales and was formerly part of the principality. “Our mar- tyrology (says Cressy) among other Saints of his time, commemorates the death and martyrdom of a king of Brecknock in South Wales, of the name of Clitanc or Clintanc, on the nineteenth day of August, in the year of Grace 492; concerning whom we hear that he was a prince very observant of peace and justice among his subjects, and that in the end he became a martyr (the natural consequence of such conduct in those days) and was adorned with a celestiall crown for his vertues and merits, and particularly his chastity and purity from carnal delectations; he was murdered by treason of a certain impious wretch whose name is perished with him.” From this brief display of the virtues and merits of Clydawc, it is soon seen that he was not likely to strew the land with heroes, or to deck the skies with the same galaxy of Saints as his grandfather; he is therefore followed in the government of his kingdom by his brother, whom the MSS. in the musaeum have named Neubedd, who is (as I apprehend) the same person as Llewelin Offeiriad calls Pedita Sant, and who died without issue, according to that pedigree : his almost heremitical attention to the duties of religion, makes it likely that he seldom interfered with the affairs of this world; consequently his little kingdom or province was open to the incursions of any rapacious freebooter or impious chieftain, who chose to attack it. Dyfnwal, who is placed as the successor of Tydyr ap Neubedd, seems to have been a person of this description, but there appears to be some confusion here, as has been before observed; the MSS. having mistaken Tydyr ap Neubedd, who is said to have lived at Crwccas near Brecknock, for Tydyr ap Teithwalch the benefactor to the church of Landaff, , r - who HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE, 65 wholived many ages prior to this time. Some call Dyſnwal, a Pictish or Caledonian prince, who wholly exterminated the race of Clydwyn and assumed the sover- eignty;* if this account is correct, one or both of the holy cousins of Cradoc Fraich-fras, seeing their subjects plundered and harrassed by a motley horde of barbarians, making continual irruptions from England, may, in conjunction with the descendants of Drem Drem-rudd, have requested his assistance to drive the successful invader from their territories, and promised him a division of Brecknockshire as his reward. w - . There are various reasons for supposing this to have been the case: we have seen that according to Llewelyn Offeiriad, upon the death of the two brothers just named, the descent of Brychan in their line ended: Cradoc, though not what would now floe called the heir at law to his cousin's property, was maternally as nearly related in blood as any other person, and he from his valour, was most likely in those boisterous times to defend and protect his subjects, when possession was acquired. According to the Harleian papers, there were five reguli from Brychan to Dyfnwal, all of whom must have died in the life time of Cradoc, and before the time assigned for his conquest of Brecknockshire, or rather the Western or mountainous part of that country; for we see the race of Drem or Rhain retaining their possessions, at a time when it has been erroneously supposed an enemy was at their doors, and when he must even have marched through the heart of their territories, to attack a neighbour, with whom they were connected and endeared by an identity of language, of interest, of habits and of disposition. Many arguments might be adduced to prove that Cradoc Fraich-fras was brought into Breconshire by the general consent, if not by the invitation of the inhabitants, at that time suffering under the -oppression of an usurper, whose defeat about the latter end of the sixth century, conferred upon his competitor the government of that part of the country over which he ruled ; but as the elucidation of this question is not now absolutely required, and as the interest of his descendants is not likely to be injured or benefited by its discussion at this present moment, it may as well be permitted to sleep, and therefore without further examination of his right, I shall proceed to introduce him for a few minutes to the reader's acquaintance. --> # Harl, MSS, No. 6832, CHAPTER IV. g s - -- ~ , º - - - *** º - + - From Cradoe Fraich-fras, to the Conquest of Brecknockshire by Bernard Newmarch. in 1092. - - - * - #, ^{RAD0C* Fraich-fras, or Cradoc of the mighty arm, was, as we have just. ~/ seen, a grandson of Brychan, and in right of his father, lord t of Gloucester, a cotemporary with king Arthur, one of the knights of his round table and lord keeper. of “y Castell dolurus,” or the dolorous tower. To relieve the reader from any impression, which this romantic description may produce, and to chase away the imaginary giants and dragons, which perchance may present themselves to his mind's eye, it is necessary to be observed here, that in plain English this dolorous tower was nothing more than a dungeon, where prisoners of war or traitors to the state were confined, and our great hero was neither greater or less than the chief gaoler or head turnkey. This officer has been since denominated constable of the keep. In antient MSS. we hear of another Cradoc Fraich-fras, who was styled earl of Hereford, and lived in the reign of Hywel Dda; he was the son of Ceiliog Mwyngrydd and ancestor of Tydyr Trevor: of this earl, though considerably later in point of time, we know nothing but his name. Upon the history of the hero of Brecknock, the romantic age in which he lived, and the wonderful stories, recorded of him by - - t - romancer, * Cradocor Caradoc, which the Romanslatinized which Iarl is a translation, is clearly the Danish into Caractacus, if written as we generally see it, Iarl, or as the Saxons wrote it, €onl ; whereas may be derived from Caredig, beloved; but it should some of our chronicles talk of earls long before the be spelt Caeradog quasi Caer-adwyog; anglice, the Saxons came into the island. George Owen Harry breachmaker in the intrenchments. Braich, is an in his wellspringe of true nobilitie, has a list of earls. arm ; and Brås is an old Welsh word for strong or of Gloucester, beginning with Awlach the son of large : the sirname is now known in English as Tegvan, the son of Caswallon or Cassibelaun, who. Armstrong, and sometimes Stronitharm. must have lived in the first century: these were: f He is generally called earl of Gloucester in the Brenhinoedd, Reguli or Domini of Gloucester. Welsh pedigrees; but the British writers are ina- Tywysog Cernyw is very properly translated by the . curate in their mention of this dignity. Earl, of same author, Dux or Duke of Cornwall... . . .* HISTORY OF BRECKNOCRSHIRE, 6: romancers of more modern date, have certainly stamped so strongly the appearance of fable, that serious persons are apt to be incredulous, and some indeed, among writers of repute, have more than doubted his existence in the present character. Camden, for instance, as well as Evans, in his Drych prif oesoedd, seem to think that Caradauc Wrichvras (as the former calls him) was the celebrated Caractacus, who so gallantly opposed Ostorius; and Lewis in his antient history of Britain, supporting this opinion, asserts, that the books of pedigrees have erroneously brought him down six descents too low, affirming him to have been a knight of king Arthur's court. It must be admitted that fiction forms too prominent a feature in all legendary narratives, and a fondness for the marvellous, too often stifles the modest voice of truth; but still, exaggeration cannot deprive a being of entity, however it may injure the credit to which he is justly intitled for the great or virtuous actions he may have actually performed: and though we have the history of the he- roes of antient days from the bards, it must be recollected they were the only chroniclers of those times: it was their province to celebrate the exploits of the brave, to record the merits of the good and to preserve the maxims of the wise. Verses were the common vehicle by which they effected these purposes, and ,” —“Pictoribus atque poetis, Quidibet audendi semper fuit aequa potestas. Painters and poets our indulgence claim, Their daring equal and their art the same.” FRANcis. We therefore cannot wonder, if in recording the triumph of a favorite chieftain, they sometimes availed themselves of this poetic licence. . When once a hero becomes the popular theme of poetical composition, he is allowed all the virtues with which the imagination of his panegyrist can supply him : fable as well as history, is ransacked to deck him out; palpable anachronisms are disregarded, and the merits of far distant ages concentered into one: thus it was in the mythology of the ancients: real heroes were exalted into Gods, and even the vices of extraor- dinary men received a kind of sanction and respect; for we hear of nations who conceived they were engaged in the duties of religion, when they were employed in celebrating the orgies of Bacchus and the impure rites of Venus, or when they made oblations and raised altars to the God of Avarice. Thus it also is even at this day: let any one read the birth day odes of our modern poets laureat, (in a reign when adulation is unnecessary, and where so many amiable virtues adorn the object of their praise) he will find the performers on the sack-but wishing us to believe, * j - that f K9 68 HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. that the monarch can controul the elements, that inanimate as well as animated nature smiles on his approach and trembles at his frown, that he has power to hurl the imaginary thunderbolt of Jove to the ends of the earth, and that he possesses. the united wisdom as well as virtues of all the great men of Greece and Rome, without the alloy of any one of their vices: and yet still, these compositions have. their uses, and even in an historic point of view, much may be extracted from them. But to return to Cradoc; the English reader will probably be satisfied with the pedigree I have already given him. For the satisfaction of those of my countrymen, who from habit or inclination, chuse to travel further back, I beg leave to inform them, that with the assistance of a friend, his descent may be traced to Coel Codebog; of the line of Beli mawr, who lived some few generations below Noah, the ninth - from Adam, where I beg leave to halt, and with one pull, to bring them back to an historian of the eighteenth century. Carte.” upon the authority of a triad, (No. 64. in the Myfyrian Archaeology) asserts, that Cradoc Fraich-fras was king or prince of the Cornish Britons in the latter end of king Arthur's reign, and he thinks the two. unfortunate youths whom Gildas reports to have been murdered in a church by Constantine, were his sons; grounding the probability upon a circumstance which, he assumes, i. e. that Cradoc was not succeeded by any of his children, but that his crown descended to a collateral branch of his family, to Geruntius or Geraint ap. Erbin king of Cornwall, in the time of Taliesin. The historian in this instance, is: not correct either in his reference or conjecture. The words of the triad are, “There are three Thronest in the isle of Britain; one at Carleon upon Usk, and there Arthur has the supreme authority; (yn Benn-rhaith) St. David the son of Cynedda Wledig, is archbishop, and Maelgwn Gwynedd is chief elder and president of the council, (Penn-Hyndf). The next at Celliwig in Cornwall, there also Arthur is sovereign; Bedwineu, archbishop, and Cradoc Fraich-fras president of the council, (Penn-Hynaf); and the third is at Penrhyn Rhionydd in North Wales, where Arthur is sovereign; Cyndeyrn. Garthwys, archbishop, and Gwrthmwl Wledig chiefelder.” Another triad (111) informs us, that Arthur celebrated the feasts of Christmas, Easter and Whitsuntide, alternately, at these three places; it was the duty of Cradoc Fraich-fras therefore, to attend the court of the monarch in Cornwall at Easter annually: it is as clear therefore, though the duties of his office may have frequently required his presence, in the ambulatory courts of his prince, that Cradoc and his descendants settled in Brecknockshire, as that Geraint and his family were. - -- strangers, * Hist. of England, vol. 1. p. 216. . + Lleithig Llwyth means enthroned tribes; here it is clear they signify the seats of monarchy. HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE, - 69 strangers to that country: all our pedigrees notice the conquest of Ferlex, (or as they call it, Fferreg and Fferregs) being that tract of land which lies between the Severn and the Wye, by Cradoc, immediately previous to his entry into Wales; and one of the triads records him among the supporters or defenders of the principality; “Tri anwyl Llys Arthur, a thri chadfarchawg ni fynassant Penteulu armynterioed, ac y cant Arthur englyn iddynt, mid amgen, sef * *, Yw fy mrhi Cadfarchawe Mael a Lludd Llygyrrawc ~ * A cholofa Cymru Cradawe.” The three beloved chiefs of Arthur's court, who never could bear a Superior in their families, of whom Arthur sung the following stanza: “These are my three knights of battle ; Mael and Lludd clad in armour, And the pillar of Wales, Cradoc.” The wife of Cradoc Fraich-fras was Tegau Eurfron; a name, the definition of which, I am at a loss to account for : if all the pedigrees were not against me, I should have conceived it ought to be written, Teg ei Fron or Fairbosom ; she is said to be the daughter of king Pelynor, (perhaps Pyll mawr) and was celebrated by the bards as one of the three chaste women of Britain, who possessed three valuable ornaments, of which, she alone was reputed worthy; her knife, her golden goblet and her mantle; the last was certainly with great propriety, esteemed as one of the thirteen curiosities of the island of Britain. It would not fit, nor could it be worn by any but a chaste woman!!! Percy, in his reliques of antient poetry, has a long ballad or tale in rhyme, upon this subject, which has little to recommend it besides its antiquity. Cradoc had by this wife six sons, Cawrdaf, Hyfaidd, Cleddfrudd or rather Cleddeu-rudd, (red sword) St. Cadfarch or Cadferth, St. Tangwn and St. Maethlu or St. Amaethlu. Hyſaidd is said to have been lord of Radnor, from him called Maes Hyſaidd, 11OW written and pronounced Maesyfed or Maesyved, according to the English way of spelling, Lewis, in his antient history of Britain, informs uS, that “Radnor is called Maes Hyvaidd from a worthy lord thereof, called by Taliesin, Hyvaidd hwyr ac Hwyst, that is, Hyvaidd the bold and active, who lived in the time of ida or Flamddwyn, which Hyvaidd with Urien Reged and Ceneu the son of Coel Godebog, had bloody wars with the said Ida.” In a marginal note it is said “some called him Hyvaidd henllyn, i.e. of the old pool;” and it is further added, “Camden - --- HS. e” 7:6 HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. is mistaken in calling Old Radnor, Maesyved, which for a thousand years past, had no other name than Penycraig, or the head of the rock.” A warrior of the name of Hyfaidd hir, or the tail, is celebrated by Aneurin in his Gododin ; ~ * - “Hyfaidd hir ermygir tra fo Cerddawr.” The praises of Hyſaidd the tall shall be sung while a Bard exists; Owen says, he was the son of Bleiddig or Lupus, who accompanied Germanus into Britain;” Hyſaidd was certainly no uncommon name among the antient Britons; but the hero of Aneurin and Taliesin was most probably the son of Cradoc Fraich-fras, who as regulus of Fferregs and part of Brecknockshire, was enabled to make a suitable provision for his offspring. - Gwgan and Cleddeu-rudd sleep with the Capulets; St. Cadfarch, or Cadverth, at Abereirch;t St. Tangwn, at Llangoed, which is dedicated to him; and St. w Amaethlu at Carnedd fawr or the great Barrow: both the two last places are in the isle of Anglesea. - - Cawrda, Cowrda, or Cawrdaff the eldest son of Cradoc, succeeded his father in the kingdoms or lordships of Fferregs and Brecknock; in the British triads he is styled one of the three prime youths of Britain, and in an antient MS. penes Mr. John Lewis $ of Lanwenny, quoted by Hugh Thomas, he is called “one of the seven blessed first cousins of Britain ///” He left issue Caw, Cadarch, Cathen, Clydawc, and Medrod; Clydawc was the father of Gwynawc, the father of Collen, to whom Llangollen in Denbighshire (where he was buried) is dedicated. In the church was formerly a recumbent figure in alabaster of a churchman, which was vulgarly called St. Collen, “he has left behind him (says Mr. Pennant) a legend worthy of the Alcoran itself;” what the particulars of the marvel are, I have not been able to learn: his name is not in Cressy’s book, nor is that of his Welsh un- cle St. Dyſmog, the son of Medrod, noticed in that publication; it is by no means improbable that the church of Devynnock, in Brecknockshire, is consecrated to the memory of the latter Saint, notwithstanding the parish wake is now held in honour of St. Cynog; a parallel case will be found in Llangeney, where the feast is upon Gwyl Gyrig, though the old church was without doubt St. Ceneu's. - 1. - - - - - * Pennant * Circa. A. D. 447, Camb. Biog. p. 184. f Myſ. Arch. vol. 2. p. 31. : Quaere, if Llanwrdain Carmarthenshire is not nant melan in that county, was formerly called derived from him, and whether it is not a corruption Llanwenny. Lewis, who wrote the antient history of Llangaw.rdaf. - - - of Britain was of this family: he was a barrister,and § An ancestor of the present Mr. Lewis of Harp- practiced in the court of the president and council ton in Radnorshire. The parish of Llanvihangel of the marches of Wales. * – |Harl. Coll. No. 6832. , , , º "I RIAA () JEJIYIL O JINJI, ) º ºſº ºzzºzºſ/…/~- - '//º/ºº/zºº//º;'/ºº/-aeſ? HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE, 71. Pennant speaks of Ffynnon Dyfnog in the neighbourhood of Denbigh; “it is a fine spring, dedicated to St. Dyfnog, one of our long pedigreed Saints;” it was for- merly resorted to by many votaries: the fountain he says, is inclosed in an an- gular wall, decorated with small human figures, and just before them is the well for the use of the pious bathers. *- *. - To Cawrdaf succeeded his son, who was followed by a long line of descendants, whose exploits have neither been preserved by tradition or celebrated by history. The eldest son of Caw was Gloyw, whose son was Hoyw, who governed Fferregs about the year of Christ 640. After Hoyw came his son Cynfarch, who lived about 680; to him again succeeded Cyndeg ap Cynfarch, who was a cotemporary with Cadwaladr Fendiged or the blessed, with whom closed the imperial dignity of Britain, in the year 703; that prince having in the weakness of superstition. and fanaticism abdicated his throne, and taken shelter at Rome. Teithwalch the son of Cymdeg, upon the death of his father, assumed the govern- ment of Fferregs and Brecheiniog, which however he was not long able to preserve entire, or at least he was not compleatly successful in driving an invading enemy out of his territories. Rodri Molwynog was at this time prince of North Wales, during whose reign the Mercian prince Ethelbald, king of Mercia, tempted by the appearance of the fertile plains of Fferregs, invaded that country and proceeded with devastation in his train, through Brecheiniog and the Cwmwd, even to the very borders of upper Gwent; where being opposed by the Welsh, a bloody battle ensued, at a place since called Carno,” in the parish of Llangattock near Crickhowel in Breconshire: but though the Saxons received a check here, and much blood was shed on both sides, the victory was doubtful; it seems however to have prevented: + the * Tradition has established this hill as the place where the battle was fought; otherwise Carno is by no means sufficient to ascertain its locality; for we find several mountains of this name, both in North and South Wales, in Cradoc of Llancarvan's history. of Wales. By Carn or Carnedd, Carno, Carnau or Carneddau, is meant a heap or heaps of stones. The Carneddau (says Owen in his dic- tionary) and the tumuli of earth (or stones) were the common monuments that the antient Britons erected in honour of their great men; which of the two kinds was probably determined by the soil or stratum of the country in which they are found, being stony, or otherwise: these modes of interment continued in use many ages after the introduction of Christianity, but when the custom. of burying in churches and church-yards became general, they were not only disused but condemned, as fit only for great criminals. When the Carnedd was considered as the honourable tomb of a war- rior, every passenger threw his additional stone out of reverence to his memory. When this heap came to be disgraced, by being the mark where the guilty was laid, the same custom still con- tinued, but now in token of detestation. These early, heaps then, having been generally, raised to the memory of those warriors who fell in battle, frequently gave names to spots, which be- fore, were not distinguished by any particular appellation; as, Mynydd y Carno or rather Carnau, the hill or mountain of barrows or. tumuli, , - - - 72 HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. the enemy from penetrating further into the country at this time, and to have compelled him to retrace his rout, to retire into Herefordshire, and afterwards to - return into his own dominions. Several battles followed between the Britons and Saxons, in the country then called Fferregs, in one of which the former (it is said) lost a distinguished chieftain, named Dyfnwal ap Tydyr. .. Teithwalch was succeeded by his son Tegyd, who lived during the reign of Cynan Tyndaethwy, prince of North Wales. The ambitious designs of Mercia, which indeed apparently slumbered but never slept, were now renewed with in- creased violence under Offa; who entered heartily into the depredating schemes of his predecessor Ethelbald. Scarcely a day passed without some attempts to harass the unfortunate Ferlicians. The Welsh finding that forbearance on their part served only to increase the confidence and invite the attacks of the enemy, resolved at length upon a bloody retaliation. Hitherto their system had been merely defensive, but now rising en masse, they suddenly entered Mercia, and having laid waste all before them, obliged the enemy, after a dreadful carnage, to retreat beyond the Severn, and returned home laden with plunder and spoils. “Fierce Offa and the Saxons fled before them.” Encouraged by this success, and animated with the hopes of further booty, they repeated their incursions and compelled their cruel and inveterate enemy to trem- ble in his turn. Offa, being thus not only baffled in his designs against Fferregs, but alarmed for the safety of his kingdom, called in the assistance of other Saxon - princes, and with a strongly confederated army entered Wales. The Britons - being far outnumbered by the invader, retired to the mountains upon their ap- proach, driving before them their cattle and carrying with them their effects; so that the Saxons were soon obliged to retreat into England, probably for want of provisions, though the cause is not expressly assigned by historians. - In order to curb the restless spirit of the Britons, (as he was pleased to term it) Offa during this expedition placed a strong colony of Saxons in Fferregs, who in their own defence were compelled to resist and prevent the incursions of the in- habitants of the principality into the English borders; and the better to ascertain the boundary of the two countries, he formed the well known dyke which bears his name, and which, even as late as the reign of Edward the confessor, was re- garded as the discriminating line between England and Wales; for by a law of Earl Harold it was ordained, that if any Welshman coming into England without licence, should be taken on that side of Offa's dyke, his right hand should be cut off by the king's officer. It extended from Flintshire in North Wales, to the - - - mouth mouth of the river Wye near Chepstow, or as some say, Tydenham passage in Gloucestershire. The tradition of the inhabitants of - Ystradyw and the adjacent - part of Monmouthshire, carries it over one side of the Sugar Loaf, if so, Penclawdd, or the head of the ditch, in Monmouthshire was upon Offa's Dyke; but Mr. Coxe thinks it to have been the scite of an old Roman road. The boundary just mentioned most probably took a more Eastern direction, through Herefordshire and Mon- mouthshire, Pennant observes, that in all parts, the ditch is on the Welsh side, - and that there are a great number of artificial mounds, the scites of small forts, in many places along its course: these were garrisoned and intended for the same purpose as the towers in the famous Chinese wall; to watch the motions of the neighbours and to repel hostile incursions. The remains of this useless work of labour and expence are very visible in several places in North Wales, and on a hill three miles West of Knighton in Radnorshire : through which town, called Trefy clawdd commonly Trechodd, or the town of the ditch, it evidently passed; but from thence Southward it can only be traced by conjecture. This incroachment upon their limits considerably distressed the Welsh upon the borders, and compelled the princes of Pówis” to remove the seat of government to Marthrafael. Hereford (then called Fferregs, and the town,i Caerffawydd, or Beech-chester) was no longer subject to the reguli of Fferregs, and Hugh Thomast Says, that “from hence forwards their capitol was transferred to Brecknock,” meaning, I presume, some place in the country of Brecknock; as it does not appear that the town was built. until more than three centuries after this time. . . . Tangwydd ap Tegyd succeeded only to the possession of that part of Fferregs which is now called Radnorshire, to a small part of Montgomeryshire, and to that portion of Brecknockshire which was under his father's government. The names of the cantrefydd or hundreds, of which this territory was composed, in the map now remaining of it, are so disfigured by mistakes in spelling, as to become unin- telligible even to a Welsh reader, and would appear particularly uncouth to an English eye. The Britons thus circumscribed by boundaries, erected by the power and protected by the forces of their adversary, and driven to their mountains, where they were compelled to conceal themselves, smothered for some time their vexation and apparently forgot their injuries, Offa vainly flattered himself that every thing was secure: but the feelings of a brave people determined to live free or die cour- ageously, are not easily suppressed; they only wore the mask of indifference, while in reality they plotted the destruction of the obnoxious boundary and the avengement of their undeserved oppressions: for when Offa was lulled into a fancied safety and … - - negligent 4. *Wynne, Warrington, &c. ºf Llwyd's Breviary of Britain, p. 43. MS. Rawl. 1220. Bodl. Lib, 7, L. ... * 74 - HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. negligent inactivity, unsuspicious of impending danger and perhaps despising the efforts of a vanquished and (as he supposed) desponding foe: they suddenly arose, and having levelled the rampart and filled the ditch, attacked the unprepared Heptarch in his very intrenchments, whence he escaped not without some difficulty. Offa was at this time encamped at a place in Herefordshire, now called Sutton Walls, or Sutton Wallia, about three miles North of Hereford: it was then the royal residence of the Saxon, and was situate” on the top of a hill, the summit of which, is level, and estimated to contain about thirty acres of land, fenced round with a continued rampart of earth, except on the North and South sides, where there seem to have been roads into it. In the middle of this area is a hollow or low place, which the people in the neighbourhood now call the cellar, and sometimes Offa's cellar: a few years ago, in digging here, a silver ring was found of an antique form. - Here the dark and villainous murder of Ethelbert king of the East Angles was contrived and executed by Offa and his infamous queen, Quendreda or Quendrida; - “Sutton acres drench'd with royal blood . . . . . Of Ethelbert, when to th’ unhallowed feast Of Mercian Offa he invited came, To treat of spousals; long connubial joys He promised to himself, allured by fair. Elfrida's beauty, but deluded died - In height of hopes; Oh hardest fate to fall By shew of friendship and pretended love.” Offa, indeed, was a strange mixture ofgreat talents and valour with most infamous vices and unrelenting ferocity. William of Malmsbury (my countrymen will pardon me for quoting such an author) thus d escribes him: “ king Offa was a man of mighty - courage and magnanimity, who resolutely undertook whatever he once conceived in his mind; he reigned thirty nine years. When I consider his exploits, which were various in their nature and of different kinds, I am in doubt wh ether I should reckon him. among the good or. evil kings, as there was such an. interchangeable vicissitude in him. of virtues. and vices: he was like Proteus, his form and features * ever changing.” Cressy calls him, a noble and illustrious king, and because he made a pilgrimage to Rome and founded the monastery at St. Alban's, he conceals most, and forgives him the remainder of his crimes. Mortified beyond measure at his late discomfiture at Sutton, as well as by previous disappointments, the bloody Mercian despot wreaked his vengeance upon some unfortunate hostages whom the chance of war had thrown into his power; these he sacrificed to his fury without mercy, and the conflict between him and the Britons * Price's Hist. Heref. p. 15. ' ' fristory of BRECKNOCKSHIRE, rs a was again renewed with increasing rancour; but though many engagements ensued between the contending parties, no material advantage was gained on either side till the fatalº battle of Morfa Rhuddlan or Rhuddlan marsh, in the vale of Clwyd in Flintshire, where the confederated Welsh were totally defeated and their leader slain. Bishop Gibson,t upon the authority of a MS. in the Hengwrt collection, asserts, that Meredydd king of Dyfed, and Offa himself, fell in this engagement: but other authors speak differently, Stowe; says, he died, after a reign of thirty nine years, at Offley, and was buried in a chapel on the banks of the river Ouse. Camden Š likewise quotes Florilegus, who asserts that Offa made choice of Bedford for the place of his interment; but that the river Ouse being once more rapid, and rising higher than ordinary, swept away his monument. This is confirmed by Matthew Paris, who, speaking of the battle of Rhuddlan, || stamps the character of this prince with eternal infamy; for he informs us, that in cold blood, he gave orders that every man and child who had been taken prisoners should be indiscriminately - massacred and scarcely did even the weaker sex escape his fury." The memory of this tragic event has been transmitted to posterity by an antient Welsh tune called Morfa Rhuddlan. There is something so peculiarly plaintive and elegiac in the notes of this composition, that I cannot resist the temptation of inserting it, and to - prove how well the sound conveys the language and sentiments of the bard upon this disastrous event, I need only mention, that when it was first played upon the harp to the late colonel Chabbert (a Swiss gentleman, who came to reside in Breconshire) it brought tears into his eyes while he observed that he was sure it i commemorated the defeat of a great army.* - . Amharawd followed his father Tangwydd, as regulus of Radnor and the lower part of Builth only, though Hugh Thomas calls him, lord of Fferregs and Brecon, At this timett Merfyn-frych and Essyllt governed North Wales: they were suc- ceeded in the year 843 by Roderick the great, eldest son of Mervyn, who marrying Angharad the heiress of South Wales, brought the whole of the principality under his dominion. During this period, Wales suffered greatly by the incursions of Egbert king of the West Saxons, who having conquered Mercia and finally united the Saxon hep- tarchy into one kingdom, soon reduced the little princes of South Wales, then the con- ederates. * A. D. 796. + Add. to Camden's Flintshire. . . # Chronicle, quarto, p. 89, - - § Camden's Bedfordshire. . . . . Vit. Off. p. 987. . . . * - ºf Offchurch in Warwickshire, Offington in published in the letters from Snowdon. This key $ussex, and Offley in Staffordshire, preserve the seems to me to be much better suited to the sub- memory of this royal Saint. ject than that in which it is given by Jones. ** The original words are lost: those now It is set by the late celebrated blind Parry. Vide, adapted to the tune are versified from a fragment the music after the next page. , X- N - - fi A. D. 819. - f L. 9 76 HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE, federates of the Danes, to the condition of tributaries: however those troublesome • foreign hornets found him and his successors such full employ for some years, that the Welsh were relieved from their visits and permitted to return to the old prac. tice of cutting their own throats; to which for centuries they never failed to resort in times of peace with England. In pursuance of this inveterate habit we find that about the year 846," a quarrel arose between Ithel king of Gwent, and the regulus, or reguli of Brecknockshire, the cause of the dispute is not known; pro- bably it was about the bounds between Brecknockshire and Monmouthshire, but thus much we know, that Ithel having attacked the men of Brecknock was defeated and slain, and the mighty horribly perjured long haired Gwentianst were compelled to take to their heels, ſ - - Gwngy, Gwngydd, Gwendid or Gwendydd ap Anharawd (for we find him by these four different names in pedigrees) appears as the next regulus of Brecheiniog and what remained of Fferregs. In some MSS he is called the son of Nés, the ŠOłł of Hoyw; but Llewelyn Offeiriad says, he was the son of Anharawd; he was eontemporary with Amharawd, Cadell and Mervyn, the sons of Rodri mawr or the great, who by his will divided the principality among them and built a palace for ‘. each. Cadell (the son to whose lot South Wales fell) lived at Dinevor or Dinas. fawr in Carmarthenshire; he had also a palace at Llyswen in Brecknockshire, and perhaps at Caerau, in the upper part of the hundred of Builth in the same county. The princes of South Wales were tributaries to the princes of North Wales, and paid them the annual sum of 63/. which was called Maelged: the royal tribute due from the principality at large to the imperial crown of London, as ordained by the constitutions of Dyfnwal Moel-mâd, was called Teyrnged; by the first is meant a - military, and by the latter a political contribution or tax, the one for the defence, and the other for the support and maintenance of the government of the whole kingdom. º, - ~. The territories of Fferregs had by this time suffered a material diminution, and the greatest part of them were then in subjection to the Saxon power. Even Brecknockshire, from the destructive operation of the law of gavelkind, that unie. versal leveller of British property, was frequently divided and subdivided into numerous portions and lordships, the little chieftain or head of each of which, exercised * A. D. 840, according to the Brut y Tywyso- their long hair and perfidious conduct; “ mawr gion, or chronicle of the princes. Myf. Arch. etch anudon, Gwenhwys gwallt hirion.” & Perhaps vol. 2, p. 392. . . . * it would be more in the spirit of the original, to + Taliesin in his poem upon the battle of Garant, translate anudon here by faithless, or regardless of under Ynyr, prince of Gwentland, describes the treaſies; literally it means perjured, inhabitants of that district as being remarkable for - . . " Mo RFA R H U DD LAN. 2- Fair on old Hafren's Banks mo – dest Violet blooms, A- 2-t sum amidst the Heaven, When from its chearing Orb the clouds are driven; A form more beauteous still a - dorm'd the Flood, Gwen - d6 ter's fa- A Llewelyn’s blood; rm more beauteous still adorn’d the Gwendôlen's Fa- - tal form, Llewelyn's Blood. • \ For her, in arms oppos'd - contending warrior trave; t - • * | s 'twas beauty fired their hearts, - Gwendèle's love . • * - * on Morfa Rhuddlan's plain, the rivals stood . "Till Morfa Rhuddlar's main was drench'd ini wood : / Not an proud morgº. might, could crºw view; - 'tii, foremost of his band, young Gryffydd fen. ". A * Gwendôlen saw him faii; And ."oh! the maiden cried, Could maiden tears avail Thou hads not died.” t Distracted to the plain Gwendôlen flew - To baths her hero’s wounds; her 1ast adieu ! Fast o'er her hero's wounds her tears she shed; But tears alas are vain J his 1jfe was £ied. ** - - oh! then for Gryffydd's son, - Ye maia, of cymru mourn: ar For wen the virgin. tear l Becomes his urns • * --> Nor you ye youths, forbid your tears to £iow; ro, they can best redress, who feel £or woe. sweet steeps the 1ovely maid, wept by the brave, For, ah! she died for him she could not save. * * * * , §. . . . . - '? . •. * HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE, 77 exercised an almost despotic power over his clan or family, at the same time that they professed to pay a kind of anomalous obedience to the prince of South Wales. . . . . “About the year 896, the Danes, (according to Powel) being defeated by Alfred, left their wives, their children and effects, in Essex, and so passed overland. f to Enadbryge upon the Severn, and then passing the river spoiled the county of Brecknock, Gwentland and Gwentllwg. Smollet” says, they were pursued by. Alfred as far as Quatbridge; and Hume, t that they fled to Quatford, where they were finally broken and subdued: the chronicle of Cradoc of Lancaryan, which Powel professes to follow, takes notice of their rout, but makes these invaders to be Normans; “Deng mlynedd a phedwar ugain mlynedd ac wyth cant oedd oed, Crist, pan fu farw Swbin y doethaf o'r Scottiaid, &c., acyno y diffeithiawd y Nor-, maniaid Lloegra Brecheiniog, a Morganwg a Gwen ta Buallt, Gwnllwc,” i.e. in the year of Christ 890 died Swbin the wisest of the Scotch nation.—and then were: England, and Brecknock, and Glamorgan, and Builth, and: Gwentllwg ravaged by, the Normans.S” From whence Smollet or Hume derive their information, as to, the retreat of the Danes, is not stated by either of these authors. Quatford or Quatbridge is a small village in Shropshire,4| upon the banks of the Severn, about, two miles below Bridgenorth: it seems to be highly probable that this was they line of their march, or rather of their flight; for as their attack is said to have been. first on Brecknock and then on Glamorganshire and Gwent or Monmouthshire, it. is clear they could not have crossed the Severn much lower down than the con- fines of Shropshire, or their irruption would have been first into Herefordshire or Monmouthshire. From Quatford they must have proceeded to Ludlow and from thence along the borders of Radnorshire and Herefordshire, towards Hay in, Brecknockshire, where, or soon afterwards, separating one division of these depre- - . . dators * Vol. 1, p. 263. ... t Vol. 1, p. 89. # The word “and” so necessary to compleat settled at Bridgenorth, where he informs.us they the sentence (in Welsh “a”) is here accidentally were permitted (after having raised intrenchments omitted in the original. - in theirflight, which resisted the power of Alfred}} § In another part of this passage, which I did to pass their winter unmolested. The British ac- not think necessary to follow, they are called y count of their ravaging Wales, and their dispersion Normaniaid duon, the black Normans. The Welsh or perhaps embarkation on the Western coasts of always called the Danes the black army, either the principality, appears to me to be more likely to from their standard, the raven, or the colour of be correct. . . . . . . their armour. . ºf Stowe calls this place Quatbridge, and Speed | Mr. Turner, in his history of the Anglo Cartbridge upon Severn; both these historians Saxons, quotes Florentius of Worcester and the make the Danes return from thence into England, Saxon chronicle for this irruption, and says, they instead of crossing the Severn into Wales. : \ . f - ^, - 78 HISTORY OF BRECKNocKSHIRE, dators proceeded up the vale of Wye, through Builth, into the vale of Ystradtowy. in Caermarthenshire, and from thence into Caerdiganshire, while the other party laid waste the vale of Usk, and entered Monmouthshire and Glamorganshire, destroying the habitations and carrying away with them the effects of the inha- bitants. In 911 the Danes again made an unsuccessful attack on South Wales, when they were compelled, as Powel says, to make the best of their way into Ireland. .” The successor of Gwngy is called by John de Castores, Huganus, who describes him as a prince of West Wales, but all our pedigrees make him prince or lord of Brecknock, though they differ as to his name; some write it Kydd, others Ky and Gy, and others Guy and Hudd: his reign commenced about the latter end of the ninth, or very early in the tenth century; soon after which, finding Edward the elder fully employed in expelling the incursions of the Danes, he seized, as he thought, the favourable opportunity of revenging the many insults that had been offered to his country, and recovering by well timed exertions, the possessions which had been wrested from his ancestors: with the strongest levy he could muster he passed the Saxon boundary and commenced hostilities, but here he met with an unexpected check from the Mercian Elfleda or Ethelfleda. This heroine was the wife, and afterwards the widow of Ethelfred, earl of Mercia, daughter to Alfred the great and sister to the Saxon monarch Edward: from her masculine talents and military exploits, she was generally called king. In the year 914, ac- cording to Powel (although Cradoc says Edelfled died in 910,” and makes no mention of her expedition and victories in Wales) she entered into that country at the head of a powerful army and meeting with Huganus upon the borders, a severe engagement ensued, in which he was not only defeated by this Amazon, but followed up so closely, that his castle of Brecenanmere was taken by storm, and his princess or queen (as she is sometimes called) with thirty-four of her at- tendants, sent prisoners into Mercia. This battle, in Welsh is called Gwaith y Bdinas newydd, or the battle of the new city. It is difficult to ascertain the scite of this ancient fortress, whether it be denominated Brecenanmere or Dinas newydd. Camden doubts whether it was Brecknock or Castell y Dinas on a steep tapering rock above the lake: a note in Rapin, quoting the Saxon annals and H. Huntingdon says, she took Brecenanmere, supposed to be Brecknock: against this, however there is an insurmountable objection, which is, that Brecknock, castle certainly, and pro- bably the town, was not built until near two hundred years after this period; the conjecture of Camden is equally unfortunate, as to Castell y Dinas, which is not ... • . . . . . situate, * Stowe places her death in 919, and Speed in 912. | HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE, is situate, as he describes it, upon a high hill near the lake, but at a considerable distance from it and separated from Llangorse lake by an intervening range of mountains; besides, that portion of Brecknockshire in which Castell y Dinas is si- tuate, was then in the possession of the descendants of Drem Drem-rudd or Rhain - and not of Huganus; the castle of Blanllyfni therefore seems to have the best claim to be considered as the residence of the lady and her attendants; for this is placed at the head of the lake of Llynsavaddan or Brecknock mere. This castle being most probably described by the earliest historians, as built near a lake, was stated by the first transcriber or perhaps translator who recorded this event in the English language, as “the castle of or near to Brecknock or Brecon mere, afterwards corrupted into Brecenanmere.” - Hwgan being thus disconcerted in his projects, and disgraced in his arms, fled to Derby, where he joined the Danes, who cordially received and tendered him their assistance: supported by his new friends, he prepared for a recommencement of hostilities, but all his attempts to elude the vigilance or resist the good fortune of Elfleda were vain: with incredible activity she hastened with her victorious army and pursued her defeated foe to his rallying place; here, before he was enabled to compleat his schemes, she laid close siege to the town, and though Hwgan on the other side was not idle, and though he encouraged the garrison both by exhortation and example to make a spirited defence, yet after a trifling advantage, the gates of the city were set on fire by Gwaine lord of Ely, steward to Elfleda, and after a vigorous attack, possession was taken of the citadel by the assailants. Hwgan, perceiving that every thing was irrecoverably lost, determined to die bravely, rather than surrender himself dishonourably to a woman; he therefore rushed furiously into the heat of the battle, and fell covered with innumerable wounds. His son Dryffin, sometimes called Sir Dryffin and Dyfnwal, succeeded to his . father's government and soon experienced nearly similar misfortunes: “of manners gentle and affections mild,” the emollient arts of peace were more congenial with his mind, than the din of arms or the bustle of a camp; imperious necessity however often compelled him to take the field; though his whole life was a continued series of mortification and losses. In his time, Athelstan king of England, having triumphed over the Danes and Scots, whom he repeatedly defeated in several pitched battles, marched with an army into Wales: this, according to Powel, was in the year 935; but Cradoc's chronicle says, Athelstan died in 930, and no notice is there taken of this irruption: Powel however proceeds to inform us, that he forced - the *An objection, similar to the last mentioned, lies to Blänllyfni, which was likewise in the Cwmwd; but I know aot where else to find a home for Hwgan's queen. . . - (80 HISTORY OF BRECKNocksHIRE, A the princes of the adjoining and neighbouring countries to pay him a tribute of twenty pounds in gold, three hundred in silver, and two hundred head of cattle: this tribute is mentioned in the Brompton chronicle, but there the number of cattle is doubled. g * . * . The celebrated Welsh legislator, death of his cousin Edwal Foel or the bald, the son of Anharawd, once more united the principality of Wales under one leader. Whether he obtained this dignity solely by the efforts of ambition or was called to it by the voice of the people, or whether great talents for government occasionally interrupted the succession in these disorderly days, is not clear: certain it is, that the sons of the late prince of Hywel Dda or the good, had now, upon the North Wales were superseded without any opposition. Whatever the means were by which Hywel obtained the sovereignty, his early and vigilant attention to the common weal and the mild tenor of his government, must, in some measure, palliate, though it may not altogether vindicate an act of injustice, if such it was. His code of laws (however whimsical and unaccountable some of them now appear) collected from the most antient records* and grounded upon the well known and best received customs of his nation, must ever remain a stupendous monument of his wisdom and discrimination, at the same time that his upright and impartial administration of those laws justly intitle him to the appellation of the Good. About the year 944, he made a general survey of the principality, it dividing the whole into grand and petty districts; in this division, Brecknock formed four cantreds or hundreds, Cantreſſ-mawr, Cantreſſ-Tewdos, Cantreff-Eudaf and Cantreſſ-Selyff; these were again divided into Cwmmwds, Cymydau or smaller jurisdictions: Cantreſſ-mawr contained Cwmwd Llywel and Cwmwd Dyffryn Honddu, Cantreff. Tewdos, Cwmwd y Gelly and Cwmwd Glynbwch, Cantreff-Selyff, Cwmwd Brwynllys and Cwmwd Talgarth, and Cantreſſ-Eudaf, Cwmwd Tyr Ralph, Cwmwd . . Ystradyw, ruses the Leges Saxonicæ of Wilkins, will see to whom these invaders were indebted for their or- dinances. From Ina to Edward the confessor, º “pay your tythes” is one of the principal injunc- * Lord Lyttleton (who thinks contemptuously of these laws) intimates, that from the entire agreement of several of them with those of the Saxons, they were occasionally borrowed from the latter. Life of H.2, v.2, p. 333. But without any fear of being charged with prejudice or national vanity, I have no hesitation in asserting that in Hywel's time, the Welsh were a far more learned and civilized people than the Saxons; this'makes it more probable that the German pirates borrowed occasionally from the pupils of the Romans, than the latter from the former; besides, whoever pe- tions, and Affred's laws begin with the decalogue of Moses oddly transposed; the Monks therefore were undoubtedly the authors and dictators of the: Saxon laws, while those of Hywel (though he un- doubtedly availed himself of the assistance of the learned of his day) preserved in many instan- ces, the manners, maxims, and character of early times, and of the artless children of nature. i Harl. MSS. No. 6108, p. 55. Ibid. No. 7017. HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. s1 Ystradyw, Cwmwd Crughywel and Cwmwd Ewyas. Sir John Pryce in his des- cription of Wales,” divides Brecknockshire into Cantreſſ-Selyff, Cantreff-canol and Cantreſſ-mawr; his subdivisions are evidently erroneous and almost unintelligible. Hay, Talgarth, Builth and Llangorse are placed within the Cwmwds of Tyr Ralph, Llywel and Cerrig Howell, but in which of them is not stated; it is however perfectly immaterial; as the town of Hay or Gelli (as it is there called) was certainly not in either of them, and Builth was at that time part of another province. From this survey of Hywel, we see clearly that Crickhowel or Ystradyw and the country adjacent, was at that time considered as part of Brecknockshire, though he does not hesitate to acknowledge the spiritual jurisdiction of the see of Landaff over it, for he calls it Cantreff-Eudaff or Oudoceus's hundred: it is also equally . evident that Hywel and his tributary princes or lords governed this tract at the time of the survey; and history as well as tradition has confirmed their right, which has been incontrovertibly established by their possession of it, for ages long prior and subsequent to this period. - - - - The small remains of Fferregs, which had long been gradually decreasing as well from violence as by partition, were at length torn from the unfortunate Dryffin by the arms of Elystan sirnamed Glodrydd, or Athelstan the famous or praiseworthy. The memory of this hero, as well as his conquests of this country, is preserved only in antient British MSS.; but both are so familiar to a Welshman, that to doubt of the existence of the man, or to cavil at the relation of his exploits, would be downright infidelity. This adventurer then (for such he is generally supposed to be, though some make him the legitimate lord of the greatest part of F ferregs) was the son of Cynhyllyn lord of Melenydd and Builth, who was the son of Ivor or Mór, the son of Severus, the son of Cador Wenwyn, the son of Cadvan, the son of Owain, - the son of Idnerth, the son of Iorwerth Hirflawdd, the son of Teganwy, the son of Teon, the son of Gwineu-dau-freiddawd king of Alban or Scotland, by Arianwen or Silvery-white, the daughter of Brychan Brecheiniog. Elystan was born at . Hereford, then called Caer-flawydd or Beech-chester, in the second year of the reign of Athelstan king of England, who it is said was his Godfather and from whom he received his name; though the Saxon monarch proved a merciless sponsor, invading his Godson's dominions, laying his country waste with fire and sword, and imposing (as has been seen) a tribute upon him and his subjects. Elystan Glodrydd was slain in a civil broil at Cefn-di-goll in Montgomeryshire; the precise time of his death . . cannot be ascertained; he is said in some pedigrees to be alive in the time of Aeddan *Powel's Wales. M 81 HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE, * ap Blegored in the year 1010, at which period, if he was born in 927, (the second year of his godfather's reign) he must have been eighty three years of age: he had issue Cadwgan,” to whom, he gave Radnorshire and the greatest part of the hundred of Builth, and from him the male line continues to the present day, as will be seen when I come to the family of the Lloyds of Rhosſerigor Rhos-Fferregs; to his second son Morgeneu he gave his possessions in North Wales bordering on Radnorshire and to his other sons, different parcels of his territories, thus laying a certain foundation for domestic disputes and family squabbles, and of course, furnishing an irresistible. temptation to the neighbouring plunderers, to dismember his ill-gotten kingdom in the same manner as he had wrested it from the unfortunate Dryffin. During the government of this regulus, Brecknockshire was invaded by Alfred earl of Mercia ; : this event happened, according to Powel and Warrington, in the year 982, and both of them inform us, that the Saxon general destroyed the town of Brecknock; but the Brut y Tywysogion or Cradoc of Lancarvan's chronicle, places this expedition two years sooner, and with more correctness, states, that the country t of Brecknock (for it is doubtful whether the town was even then built) was laid waste by the Saxons: they were soon afterwards defeated by the united forces of Hywel prince of North Wales and Einion the son of Owen prince of South Wales; the latter (a promising young man) met with a very ungrateful return from his countrymen: he was. treacherously: slain by the nobles or great men of Gwent, while endeavouring to. suppress a commotion, though he seems for that purpose to have made use of no other means than argument or intreaties. Upon the death of Dryffin, he was succeeded by his son Maenarch or Maenyrch in the government of Brecknockshire: the misfortune of his ancestors or his own. inability, to contend with his more powerful neighbours taught him to seek his security in peace: he lived quietly and inoffensively within his little territory and instead of embroiling himself in the discord or civil war. which agitated the minds. and desolated the property of his countrymen of that day, he strove only to improve and repair the possessions left him, which he considerably enlarged by his marriage. with Elinor daughter of Einion ap Selyff, lord of Cantreſſ-Selyff: she was the sixteenth * From him are lineally descended the present expression here describes the desolation of a country noble English family of Cadogan. and not the destruction of a town: his words are. t Whatever merit Powel may generally be enti- “diffeithiawd Brecheiniawe.” diffeithiaw is to con- tled to as a translator, the Welsh reader cannot vert a cultivated or inclosed country into a desert avoid reprobating the inattention and inaccuracies or waste, and the termination “awc” (as before. frequently observable in his book; thus Cradoc's observed) generally implies a region. - # “Einion ab Optimatibus de Gwent dolo occiditur.” 4nonymous chronicle in Leland's collectanga, ,< * * * → f - HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE, 83 from Brychan, and sole heiress to her father, who was the fifteenth from Cradoc Fraich-fras: in the issue therefore of this marriage flowed the blood of both these princes, and under Maenarch the whole of the present county of Brecknock after an interval of near six hundred years, became at length united and subject to the controul of one man; but this, the absurd policy of the times would not long permit to continue; accordingly we find Drymbennog, second son of Dryffin, in possession (not many years after the death of his father) of the sovereignty or lordship of Can- treff Selyff, and we should in all probability have seen the natural ill consequences of such a partition, if the arms and good fortune of the Norman invader had not soon afterwards prevailed; when both these monarchs in miniature were reduced to . the condition of subjects, if not of slaves, to their conquerors. I now proceed to the last of the British race, who wore the trappings of roy- alty, or exercised any thing like sovereign power over the land of Brecknock. Bleddin ap Maenarch, soon after the death of his father, married Elinor, daughter of Tewdwr mawr and sister to Rhys ap Tewdwr prince of South Wales. This con- nection, though dictated by prudence and apparently recommended by sound policy, so far from procrastinating his doom, or averting the blow which was meditated against him, contributed to accelerate his ruin. His brother in law was an able, a brave and an active prince, but he was the child of misfortune. - r The history of this illustrious family is too intimately blended with the fate of Bleddin to be passed over unnoticed. - • I & The princes of South Wales descended from Hywel dda, having been long ex- cluded from their rights by the capricious succession of the times, Rhys ap Tewdwrº put in his claim and was elected prince of South Wales by the unanimous voice of his people.t It might reasonably be expected that a title thus founded upon the fairest and most honourable basis, the approbation and free choice of his subjects, would have been happy and permanent, but the ill fated Rhys was destined soon to feel “the unstable slightness” of popular favor, and to furnish posterity with one more example of the vicissitudes which generally attend the fate of princes in a bar- barous and half civilized state of society: for a while, he enjoyed his sovereignty - - without - t * Circa. A. D. 1076, t + Accordiog to Vaughan of Hengwrt, the imme- refordshire were governed by their different reguli, diate territories of this prince were only the present though there is no doubt that they all acknowledged icounties of Cardigan and Carmarthen; as Pembroke, the paramount authority of the prince of South Brecknock, Gwent and Glewissig, then called He- Wales. 39 f - M2 . . sº History of BRECKNOCKSHIRE. without disturbance; at length however, the sons of Bleddyn" ap Cynfin desirous of recovering those rights, of which they were deprived by the murder of their father and the usurpation of Caeradog, suddenly raised an insurrection in South Wales against Rhys, who being unprepared to resist such a formidable and unex- pected attack, was compelled to retire to Ireland for safety. Here he met with a hospitable reception from Sittrict king of Dublin, who had married Nest, one of his sisters, by whose friendship, as well as by promises of liberal rewards, if he should succeed; he soon raised a strong army of Irishmen and Scots, and was enabled once more to set up his standard in Wales, where he instantly prepared to assert his rights and recover his dominions. Upon his landing, the capricious multitude, who had a little while before deserted him without a cause, now eagerly flocked to him, and pressed forward with ardour in his support. From the scene of the battle, which afterwards ensued, it should seem as if he began his march at Aberystwith in Cardi- ganshire, and that Cadwgan, Riryd and Madoc, his adversaries, were then ravaging or at least tyrannizing over the territories of his brother in law, Bléddyn ap Maenarch in Brecknockshire, who, upon the news of his arrival in the principality, joined him with all the force he could raise; the two opposing armies met at a place called by Powel corruptly, Llech y creu; but more correctly, Llechryd or Llechrifydi *Bleddyn ap Cynfin, prince of NorthWales and Powis was assassinated by Rhys the son of Owain near' ... • the Port Rahern, with their villains, cattle, and corn, and gave also silver and gold sufficient to build the Holinshed says, ap Edwin, and the nobility of Ystradyw. His affability of manners and mild government had endeared him to his countrymen, but he betrayed their liberties and debased the dignity of his crown by condescending to receive it from the hereditary enemy, the English; he was the compiler of a code of laws, and established some regulations respecting the bards. After his death, his kinsman Trahaern ap Caeradog being supported by the voice of the people, assumed the government to the prejudice of his children. . +Sutric, Sittric,or Sittricus, son of Awlafor Olave king of Dublin, assisted Donagh, first bishop of Dub- lin, to build the cathedral of Christchurch in that city, instituted for regular canons in the year 1038. The record of the foundation of the church gives the following account, “Sittricus, king of Dub- lin, son of Ablab or Amlave, earl of Dublin, gave to the Holy Trinity and to Donagh, first bishop of Dublin, a place where the arches or vaults are founded, to build the church of the Holy Trinity, together with the lands of Beal, Duleh, Rechere, \ church and the whole court.” Sittric was governor or king of the Danes in Nor- thumberland, as well as king of Ireland, about the year 926. He relates a story of his being poisoned by his wife Beatrice, daughter of Athelstan, king of England, for which crime she was punished by Aulaf and Godfrey, his sons, in a very singular manner, “she was sett naked,” says he, “upon a Smythe's cold anville, or stythie, and there with hard rosted eggs being taken foorth of the hot ymbers, were putte under her arm pittes, and her armes fast bound to her bodie, with a corde and so in that state she remayned till her life passed from her bodie.” The Welsh pedigrees call Sit- tric the brother in law of Rhys ap Tewdwr, (q. if the same as Holinshed's Sittric, Sutric, Kendrick, or Wygan) he died in the year 1042 or 1043. † In Powel's Edition of Cradoc of Llancarvan, printed in 1584, this battle is said to have been fought at Llechryd; Llech y Creu is, a corruption of a later edition, copied over and over again, by subsequent authors, commentators, annotators, &c. - HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. Sö. the river Wye, in the parish of Disserth in Radnorshire: here a bloody conflict fol- Howed, which ended in the defeat of the sons of Bleddyn; two of whom were slain in the field of battle, from thence forward called Llechryd, from a Carn or Llech thrown up to the memory of Riryd,” who fell there. Cadwgan, who escaped with his life, survived to experience the vicissitudes offortune and to become alternately a prince and an outlaw, the general of an army, and the chief of a troop of Banditti. Rhys, thus fully reinstated in his principality, dismissed his Irish and Scotch friends, satisfied with the result of the expedition and the recompence made them for their assistance; to some he gave lands in Wales, where they became settlers: in this number was Idio Wyllt, or the wild, earl of Desmond, on whom (with the consent of Bleddin, it must be presumed) he bestowed the lordship of Llywel in Brecknockshire. The son of this Idio was named Moreiddig, Warwyn or Whitenape, who marrying Catherine the widow of Thomas, lord Lacy of the Golden vale in Herefordshire, became the ancestor of the Parrys of Poston in that county and Llan- devailog tre'r graig in Brecknockshire. . The sunshine of peace, which had faintly begun to gleam on the reign of Rhys, was of short continuance. Factions raised among his own rebellious and restless nobles, encouraged and supported by the court of London, which had long, though hitherto unsucessfully, plotted the reduction of Wales, continually disturbed his mind, and finally ended in his destruction. Llewelyn and Einion, sons of Cadiſor ap Collwyn lord of Dyved, having (it seems) conceived some disgust against their sovereign, entered into a confederacy against him with Griffith ap Meredith, a nobleman of weight in his country, whom they prevailed upon to engage in their designs and to assist them in their insurrection: thus supported, they marched suddenly to Llandidoch, or according to Warrington, Llandudoch or St. Dogmael’s in Pembrokeshire, where Rhys then resided, and commenced hostilities against him ‘unprepared, as they supposed, for their reception; but experience had now taught * At Abernant y beddau, or the conflux of the brook of the graves, in Cwmytoiddwr in Radnorshire, about six miles from Llechryd are three stones, each about one foot high, placed triangularly, con- cerning which, there is the following traditionary distich. . TMae tribedd tribedog There are three graves placed triangularly Ar Lannerch dirion feillionog, - | Upon a pleasant green, where the trefoil grows, Lle claddwyd y tri Chawr mawr o Frecheiniog | Where the three mighty chiefs of (or from) Breck- Owen, Milfydd, a Madog. - nockshire were buried, - -* . . . . Owen, Milfydd, and Madoc. If Cadwgan had been slain in this engagement, I should have conceived that Cadwgan, Riryd and Madoc were buried where these stones were placed, and I am still inclined to think they commemo- rate the defeat and flight of those three princes, who marched from Breconshire to meet Rhys ap Tewdwr, and that the lines have been corrupted in the course of time, 86 HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE, him to guard against the open attacks,as wellasthesecret machinations of his enemies, he therefore bravely met them in the field, and, after a smart action, entirely defeated these rebels, with very considerable loss on their side. Griffith was taken prisoner - and immediately executed, or as one copy of Cradoc of Llancarvan has it, he was made shorter" by the head. Einion (afterwards notorious by the name of Einion Tradwr, or the traitor) fled to Jestin ap Gwrgan lord or prince of Glamorgan, who was then at enmity with Rhys ap Tewdwr: this regulus was descended from the antient princes of Gwent and Morganwg, and it is said, resided principally at Cardiff. The cause of the quarrel is differently related by the chronicles of the times and must at last remain uncertain; some attribute it to a jealousy entertained by Jestin, who accused Rhys of too great intimacy with his wife; this however is improbable, if not absurd: we do not hear that there ever was any intercourse between them or their families, and Rhys at this very time was upwards of eighty years of age: it seems therefore most likely, that a question about a boundary or a sheep-walk produced the squabble between these great and mighty potentates: be this as it may, it is clear that J estyn was a most abandoned character, dissolute in his morals and oppressive in his government, debauching, either by open violence or secret intrigue, the wives and daughters of his neighbours; yet has this reprobate, for some unaccountable reason or other, been considered as one of the progenitors of the five royal tribes of Wales; and several of his posterity remain in Glamorganshire to this day, who trace with much vanity their descent from him, and boast (as an honour) that the blood of such a scoundrel continues to flow in their veins. The court of such a prince was a proper receptacle for traitors; accordingly we find that Einion was kindly received and hospitably entertained there by the unprincipled tyrant of Gwent, who readily entered into all his designs against Rhys and promised him his assistance: too weak, or too timid to meet the veteran warrior in the field with their own forces, Einion, whose only passion was revenge and who had abjured his country, suggested an expedient which, at the same time that it gratified his ruling passions and for a short time indulged the pride of his protector, ended in the subjugation of his country, and left both, dependent upon the mercy and liberality of foreigners, whose language, customs and manners, were widely different from those to which the Britons had been long habituated, and to which they were therefore warmly attached. - - - - Einion * From this, as well as several other phrases, which precedes it, which was extracted from the which occur in the copy of the chronicle of Aber- Llyfr Coch o Hergest, or at least, that considera- pergwm or Llangrallo, (see Myſ. Arch. Vol. 2.) I ble alterations have been made to it by a modern suspect that this MS. is of later date than that hand. 2 - , - / | w º, HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE, $7 sº Einion* had been an officer in the English army, had served under the king of England in France and other countries, and was a favourite in the court of London; it was therefore agreed that he should use his interest with some of the Norman nobles to invite them to join with him against the prince of South Wales. To reward him for this inestinable kindness, and to stimulate these patriotic efforts, Jestyn promised Einion, his daughter Nest in marriage, together with the lordship of Miscin in Glamorganshire as a portion. The task he undertook was not difficult; an adventurer of the name of Robert Fitzhammont readily engaged in the enter- prize, and prevailed upon several of the Norman chieftains and their followers. to accompany him. Aided by the number as well as the discipline of these soldiers of fortune, the confederates marched into the territories of Rhys and laid waste all before them. with fire and sword, who, upon his part, being soon roused by the intelligence he received, and indignant at the injuries his country sustained, . once more prepared to meet the invaders. The two armies encountered each other at a place called Hirwain-Wrgan, a large plain on the confines of Glamorganshire & and Breconshire, on the South Western boundary of the latter county; here, the good genius of Rhys finally deserted him, and from this time, little more than a titular sovereignty remained with a few of his descendants: after a bloody battle,t his troops were compleatly routed, and according to the chronicle last quoted, he himself was compelled to fly to Glyn Rhodneu $ in Glamorganshire, where he was overtaken and beheaded at a place, from thence called Pen Rhys or Rhys's head. This account however of his flight and death will appear extremely improbable, if not incredible, to those who are acquainted with the topography of the country: independent of the contradictory statement given by historians, of the time and manner of his death. Hirwain-Wrgan, as has been before observed, is on the South Western confines of Breconshire; part of this field is situate in that county. Glyn-Rhondda is ten or twelve miles Eastward of this plain and nearer Cardiff; consequently every step which Rhys must have taken in the flight, as here set down, brought him nearer to the lion's den. The chronicle of Jeuan of Brechfa says, he was slain in the field of battle. George Owen Harry, in his well springe of true mobilitie, says “he was put to flight by Robert Fitzhammon and twelve knights, who came to the aid of Justin ap Gwrgan lord of Glamorgan, but after goeinge to: aide Bleddin ap Maenarch his brother in law, he was slaine:” the tradition of Breck- mockshire (to which Hugh Thomas gives credit) informs us, that the engagement º • between * * * * Myf Arch. Vol. 2. p. 524. - + The Brut y Tywysogion calls him. Cefnderwy Brenhin Coch, cousin to the red haired king. Wm. Rufus. Myf Arch. Vol. 2, p. 324. -- tA, D, 1091. § Glyn Rhondda, $3 . HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. between Bleddin ap Maenarch and Rhys on the one side, and the Normans under Bernard Newmarch on the other, took place within two or three miles of the present town of Brecknock, where Thomas says, the village and range of hills adjoining the action are still, in remembrance of this sad event, called Battle, a well within the hamlet, Pen Sir Rhys, or the well of Sir Rhys's head, and the lane from Brecon to Battle, Heoly Cymry, or the Welshmens lane: all this is perfectly correct, as far as it relates to the well and the lane; yet the chapel there, was not so called from this. or any other battle, but being dependent upon, and a hamlet of the parish of Saint John the Evangelist in Brecon, which church and monastery was a cell to Battle in Surry, this chapel received that namein compliment to the religious house to which the mother church appertained. The fact then probably was, that Rhys after his defeat fled to Caerbannau, or as it was soon afterwards corruptly called, Caerwong,at that time his brother in law's residence and strong hold, and shut himself up with him. In the following year,” allured by the success of Robert Fitzhammon and his accomplices, and perhaps invited by them to compleat the conquest of the principality, another swarm of freebooters entered into Brecknockshire, commanded by Bernard New- march or Bernardus de novo Mercatu, and played the same game with equal success, though perhaps with less colour of right, as Fitzhammon did in Glamorganshire. All historians are agreed as to the consequences of this irruption, but none of them. have transmitted to us the occurrences which preceded the conquest, or attempted minutely to describe the field of battle where the fate of Bleddin was decided: on conjecture therefore in a great measure, assisted here and there by a glimmering of information from the broken and unconnected records of our meagre chronicles, and MSS., must depend whatever knowledge can now be derived as to the incidents that happened at this period. In the copy of Cradoc taken from the Llyfr coch o Her- gest, (and which as before observed, seems to be of higher antiquity and more correct than the Aberpergwm MS.) it is said, “Deng mlynedd a phedwar ugain a milioedd oed Crist pan lás Rhys ap Tewdwr Brenhin Deheubarth gan y Ffrancod a oedd yn preswylio Brecheiniog,” in the year of Christ 1090, Rhys apTewdwr prince of South Wales was slain by the Frenchmen who inhabited Brecknockshire: t if this account then is to be depended upon, it may be true that the battle in which Rhys was slain was fought near the village of that name, yet it was not between him on the one side, and Fitzhammon and Einion on the other, but between Bleddin ap Mainarch - - - . and * A. D. 1092. \ . . . . - also the Brut y Saeson in the Myfyrian Archaeo. t The same thing is asserted in the anonymous logy, v. 2, p. 527, which informs us, that Rhys chronicle in Leland “Res filius Tewder a Francis was killed by the Frenchmen, (meaning certainly qui in Brechiniauc habitabant occiditur.” See Normans) who lived in Brecknockshire, HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE, 89 and Bernard Newmarch : after a survey of the ground where this battle is supposed to have taken place, I may perhaps be allowed to indulge in an imaginary, though (as I conceive) probable description of the encounter. It has been just hinted that this expedition of Bernard was concerted between him and Fitzhammon, or at least that the success of the latter led to the invasion of Brecknockshire; in his route therefore from England, the conqueror of this county very naturally called upon his countrymen in Glamorganshire, who, if they did not join, at least so far assisted him as to point out the road taken by Rhys in his flight from Hirwain-Wrgan: pur- suing his steps, the invader came to Caerbannau, which being too strongly fortified by nature as well as art to promise success in an attack on the Western side, it should seem that the Normans made a feint of filing off Northward, along a ridge parallel with the river Escir, as if they intended proceeding towards the Epynt hills and the hundred of Builth. On the other or Eastern side of the river, where the British troops were posted, the lane called Heoly Cymri, as far as it bears that name, runs parallel with this supposed march of the Normans. Along this lane the Britons proceeded watching the motions of the enemy, but concealed from them by higher ground on the left hand, so that apprehending no opposition, Bernard and his forces attempted to cross the Escir through a wood, from this event called Cwm- gwern y gād, now corruptly Cwmgwingad, or the wood of the vale of the battle, opposite the mansion house of the late colonel, and the present Mrs. Chabbert; here however they were observed by some of the British scouts upon the opposite eminence, when the Welsh army pouring down the common between Battle village and Mrs. Chabbert's, must certainly have attacked the enemy to great advantage; but the discipline of the Normans prevailed, the assailants were driven back and in this retreat or flight, tradition informs us Rhys lost his head near a well on the common just mentioned, called Ffynnon Pen Rhys, or Ffynnon Sir Rhys. The fury of the battle ceased not till the residence of Bleddin was attacked on the Eastern side, where it was most assailable and where he himself, as we learn from Hugh Thomas as well as some other MSS. was slain while gallantly defending his life, his liberty and his country against a horde of robbers, who had no pretence or motive for hostilities, except a savage and unjustifiable love of plunder, or any argument to support them, but the sword.” Thus * A house in the neighbourhood of Battle, called ‘. Glywdy is generally supposed to have been the station of a British centinel, and the word to be derived from the watch word, aglywi di: dost thou hear? buthowever firmly established this definition z may appear to be, it does not seem well founded ; £his station must have been in the rear of the British army; there is no eminence or Disgwylfa near it, on the contrary, it is situated at the foot of a hill. Glywdy therefore, in all probability, is only a corruption of Glawdy or Glawty, an outhouse or place to shelter cattle, or preserve implements of husbandry from the rain. N 90 HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE, Thus fell Bleddin ap Maenarch, and with him perished the independence of Brecheiniog as a British state or province: from hence forward we shall see it sub- ject to foreign masters and governed by strange laws; but even while it is undergoing these changes, we shall have abundant reasons to be thankful for the wise and gracious dispensations of Providence, who in his mercy, led our ancestors by means imperceptible and apparently grievous to them, out of a state of continued and savage warfare, into civilization and social order, who taught them properly though slowly to estimate the blessings and comforts of peace, who gradually softened and subdued. the ferocity of the conquerors, while he poured content into the bosoms of the con- quered and by whose benignant kindness and all-powerful protection, both, finally became an industrious, free and united people.* * Bleddin ap Maenarch was buried at Ystradfſlur or Strata Florida abbey in Caerdiganshire, which was built by his brother in law Rhys ap Tewdwr, and endowed in 1164 by Rhys ap Griffith, who styles himself the founder, in his charter preserved in the monasticon. Leland, in his collectanea, vol. 1. p. 45, more correctly calls “Resus filius Theo- dori princeps Suth-Walliae primus fundator,” of this monastery. Bleddin left two sons, Gwrgan, from whom are descended the Wogans of Pembrokeshire and several families in Brecknockshire, and Cradoc whose issue (if it has not failed) from the continual change of names, cannot now betraced. 1 s ] c HAPTER v. From the Conquest by Bernard Newmarch,” to the Accession of the Lordship of Brecknock by Humphrey de Bohun, (the sixth of that Name) in Right of his Wife £linor, one of the Daughters of Wm. de Breos. ºr w QEVERAL of our Welsh pedigreest make Bernard Newmarch to be uterine *D brother to William the conqueror, though they are not confirmed in the asser- tion by any of the English historians: Mr. Collinson, the author of the history of Somersetshire, it says, his name was Pancewolt and that he held the lands of Dun- kerton near Bath of one Turstin Fitzrolft a Norman baron, who obtained that manor of the conqueror: but that he afterwards took the name of de Novo Mercatu or of the New Market, under which he occurs as a witness to king William's charter to the monks of Battle; he is also called Newmarch and Neemarch in the roll of Battle abbey, copied by Stowe in his chronicle. Bernard Pancewolt, besides Dunkerton, held under the same Fitzrolf, as appears by doomsday book, Gillingham in Dorset- shire and Hildesley in Gloucestershire, and of the crown, he also held several. manors in Sussex and Froxfield in Wilts, but we have still to learn Mr. Collinson's authority for representing Pancewolt as the same person with the conqueror of Breconshire. The assertion of Sir Robert Atkyns, $ that his descendants inherited the manor of Dyrham in Gloucestershire, seems to rest upon no surer foundation. In the insurrection excited against William Rufus, by his uncle Odo, in favour of duke Robert, we find Bernard de Newmarch associating with Ralph de Mortimer, - Roger * Notwithstanding all writers have placed the Newmarch gives Glazbury and the tythes of the conquest of Breconshire about the year 1092, there lordship of Brecon, to Serlo the abbot and monks. are some reasons for believing that that event as of Gloucestershire; and in the same year, we find well as the reduction of Glamorganshire, occurred him ravaging the borders of Wales, in conjunction some few years sooner: for in 1088, Bernard de with the friends of Robert of Normandy. #-H. Thomas's MSS. + Vol. 3. p. 337. § Atkyns's Gloucestershire, p. 216. 1083. N 9 - 92 HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE, Roger de Laci and other barons, doing considerable mischief in Worcestershire and Herefordshire;* but by the exertions of the king, aided by Lanfranc archbishop of Canterbury, whose influence over the English nation was very considerable, they were beaten and repulsed, and afterwards returned to their allegiance. - - - Upon the defeat and death of Bleddin, Bernard Newmarch disliking the situa- tion of Caerbannau, then or since corruptly called Caervong, caused it to be rased to the ground, and following the course of the river Usk for three miles down- wards, he crossed that river, as there are reasons to believe, some few yards below a mill now called Usk mill; an old deed in my possession, of the date of 1406, describes some lands which are thereby conveyed to one of the Havards of Cwrt John Young, (a mansion formerly erected near the spot) as extending from Benni on the West, to Bernards forde on the East. Here, on the North side of the Usk, the conqueror built a strong castle on an eminence and fixed his residence, and whatever materials were worth carrying or preserving, he removed from the old town, and employed in the erection of his new fortress, or in building habita- tions for his followers and dependants. - - -, To the knights and principal gentlemen who accompanied him in his expedition, he proceeded to distribute the domain he had acquired, agreeably to the feodal system then prevailing, reserving to himself the principal parts, with the seigniory of the whole. To Sir Reginald Awbrey, he gave the manors of Slwch and Aber- cymrig; to Sir Humphrey Bourghill or Burghill, the manor of Crickhowel; to Sir Peter Gunter, the manor from him called Tregunter or Gunterstone; to Sir Miles. Picard, de Picarde or Pitcher, the manor of Scethrog; to Sir John Walbieffe or Walbeoff, the manor of Llanhamlach and Llanvihangel tally llyn; to Sir Humphrey Sollers, the manor of Tredustan; to Sir Walter Havard, the manor of Pontwylym; , to Sir Richard de Bois, the manor called from him Trebois; to Sir Richard Peyton, the manor from him also called Peytin; to Sir John Skull, the manors of Bolgoed . and Crai; to Sir Thomas, or as others, Sir Richard Bullen or de Boulogne, the manor of Wern fawr; to Sir Phillip Walwyn, the manor of Hay; to Sir Hugh Surdwal, the manor of Aberescir; to Sir Giles Pierrepoint, otherwise Parkville, the manor of Gileston; and to Walter de Cropus, lands in Llansaintfread. The descendants of most of these Normans still continue in the country and the neighbourhood, though several of them have changed their names according to the * Carte, Rapin, Brompton chron. - ºººººººººººº/,//, gos, z/,//,/ |- º XII () () NIYI :) ÉI NII ȘI ºººº..ººzºſ/…/…(Zººzººzººſ/2; ºº/, n-===----|--------- -- ==- Ē HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE, - 93 \ the Welsh custom; but the Peytons and Pierrepoints” soon failed or quitted the principality, º Some MSS. informs us that Gwrgan the eldest son of Bleddin made attempts to recover his father's dominions, yet without success; if this was the case, Ber- nard behaved to him with a liberality not very common in those days; for though he kept him pretty much under his eye, and he was considered as a kind of state prisoner in his castle and town of Brecon, he gave him the lands and revenues arising from the manors of Blänllyfni, Aberllyfni and part of Llanvihangel tally llyn: Cradoc had lands assigned him in the hilly parts of the country, and his uncle Drymbenog, second brother to his father, was permitted to enjoy as much of the lordship of Cantreff-Selyff as remained after the slices cut out for the Norman knights: such conduct. towards an unfortunate family, whom the chances of war had thus thrown into his power, reflects no inconsiderable degree of credit upon the conqueror, and in some measure wipes off the stain, which his usurpation ": . throws upon him; for thou gh it be admitted that Gwrgan was narrowly watched and not permitted to stir abroad without the company of two Norman knights,' yet when we recollect the precarious situation in which Bernard stood, and the difficulties by which he was surrounded on every side in the maintenance of his newly acquired territory, it must be confessed that want of caution would have been a want of sense: for notwithstanding victory had hitherto attended his stan- dard, and we have seen him succeed with a celerity and to an extent beyond his most sanguine expectations, yet the implacable aversion of the natives to a foreign yoke, must have rendered his tenure very far from being secure and undisturbed; as a proof of this, we hear that in the year 1094, the men of Breck- nockshiret in concert with those of Gwent and Gower, upon the death of William Fitzbaldwyn, (whose Ilaine it seems was a terror to the Welsh) attacked their invaders in all directions, defeating them in several engagements and expelled them from the country. Loath however to give up those possessions to which they conceived they were intitled, by a right frequently recognized by the soldier "It is remarkable that this name (certainly not shire and settled in Herefordshire, where his pos- a very common one) should be found in Brecon terity now remain; they have not changed their as late as the year 1448, as appears by a charter of names, but (which is rather extraordinary) they that date from the duke of Buckingham to the have picked up a Welsh motto, “Trwy rhinwedd borough of Brecon, in which, among other English gwaed,” of noble blood, or of the blood ofthose names, are found those of John Pierrepoint, senior, who are much above the vulgar: and John Pierrepoint, junior. Sir Phillip Walwyn . . . . . . ..., , , , , or his descendants soon removed from Brecknock- “Fine words, I wonder where they stole'em." f Powel's Wales, Warrington, &c. 94. º - r HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE, though the lawyer sometimes hesitates in admitting it, they returned from England with an immense army of their countrymen and Saxons, threatening to extirpate the Britons for their inveterate “pervicacity;” but whether the latter had now acquired a superior knowledge of discipline from their conquerors, or a sense of their wrongs had inspired them with a determination to conqueror die, or both these causes contributed to their success, they met and defeated the assailants at a place called by different authors Celli Iarfawc, Celli Darfawc and Celli carnawc,t and upon their endeavouring to rally, one of the Welsh chronicles tells us, the British army, making a feint of retiring into the mountains of Breconshire, by this stratagem induced the English to follow them, when they were again attacked in a disadvantageous position in Gelli-gaer, (a parish in Glamorganshire on the confines of Brecknockshire) and totally defeated with the loss of many of their leaders, among whom were Roger Montgomery earl of Arundel, William Fitz-Eustace earl of Gloucester, Arnold de Harcourt and Neale le Wiscompte, who were all slain in the battle; the scattered remains of their forces attempted to reach England, but were intercepted by Griffith and Ivor, the sons of Idnerth ap Cadwgan, at a place called Aberlech in Monmouthshire, where the Welsh again triumphed and satiated their revenge with the blood of their late masters, so that for some time no safety remained for those Normans who continued in the country, but such as their stone walls and castles afforded them. Within these strong holds they lived, alternately in a state of gloomy grandeur and sulky silence, or brutalinebriety, and from thence they occasionally sallied forth in large bodies to desolate the country and plunder the inhabitants, depending, like other beasts of prey, chiefly upon’ the success of these kind of expeditions for provisions. It was in one of these sorties, probably from the garrison of the castle of Brecon, ; that Cadwgan the son * of Bleddin was slain by the followers or friends of Bernard Newmarch,S though Powel, from what authority I know not, attributes his death to treachery.* The Welsh writers are so elated with the temporary blaze of patriotism and valour, which shone among their countrymen at this period, that they forget to give us any account how the Normans regained their authority, and the English historians are too busily employed with the transactions of their kings upon the continent, where they were now become of eonsiderable weight and importance, to trouble themselves with recording the incidents occurring in a petty warfare among the mountains - . . . . . * Tacitus v. ante. r - # Recte Gelligarnog or garneddog, the wood of the mounds or heaps of stones or tumuli. : 1098. § Myf. Arch. vol. 2. p. 532 and 533. | Powel, p. 122. - A Certainly not on the authority of the writer he affects to translate, * 4 HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE, 95. * mountains of Wales. It is not clear how far Bernard was implicated or what losses he sustained in these attacks of the Welsh: we have seen that his territories were one of the objects against which their forces were directed and through which they must have marched, but it does not appear that he composed part of the army, or was concerned in the affair of Gelli garnog or Aberlech; certain however it is, that soon after this event, he recovered his influence and power over his conquests, which he afterwards confirmed by his marriage. It was perhaps in the latter end of the eleventh, or very soon after the commencement of the twelfth century, that Roger* de Newburgh came to the assistance of Bernard de Newmarch, then nearly in a state of siege in his castle, and as the men of Gower had ravaged his possessions and supported his rebellious subjects (as he may have called them) it is not unlikely that after extricating himself out of his troubles in Breconshire, and bringing the natives once more under subjection, he joined his eonfederate in subduing the inhabitants of Gower in their turn, and that having succeeded in the enterprize, he conferred upon him some territorial possessions and mesne lordships in that country, in the same manner as he had rewarded his knights in Breconshire, reserving to himself the sovereignty or lordship para- mount over the whole: this is the only mode of reconciling the inconsistent account given by Dugdalet of the possession of Gowerland by the two families of x Newburgh and the descendants of Bernard Newmarch; for while we are there told that Roger de Newburgh conquered this territory, that he gave it to his son William, upon whose death it came to his brother Henry, and that it was confirmed by the crown in 1361 to the Beauchamps, the successors by marriage to the Newburghs . earls of Warwick, we have a kind of a collateral or parallel history, by which it appears, that during the same period the possession of the lordship, descended from Milo Fitzwalter the son in law of Bernard, to Phillip de Breos, in right of his wife Bertha, afterwards to William de Breos one of their sons, to whom it was confirmed by king John in the year 1194, and that it continued in this family, notwithstanding the occasional claims of the Newburghs, until the abandoned, and - dissipated spendthrift William de Breos in 1321, after having defrauded his son in law John de Mowbray, upon whom he settled it and cheated his creditors by mortgaging it three times over, at last sold it to three different persons at the Same time, neither of whom obtained possession, though they all paid him the purchase: money for it. - … . . . . *- - To. * Powel says, Henry de Newburgh conquered Gower, but Dugdale in his baronage attributes the subjugation of that country to his son Roger de Newburgh. . * - { - +. Baron, Vol. 1, p.69. 96 HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE, To strengthen and add stability to his interest among the Welsh, Berliard mar- fied Nest * grand daughter of Griffith ap Llewelyn prince of North Wales, a lady, who does no credit to our country or his choice, further than as it contributed to give permanency to his title and reconciled his issue to his new subjects. Having by these means endeavoured to make his government tolerable to the Britors, who either from necessity and compulsion, as has just been hinted or upon the subsiding of the ferment raised in the country by the sons of Bleddin, soon learned to submit to the yoke of their former masters, he now turned his arms against Elveſ in Radnorshire, upon the borders of the Wye: this tract of country he added to his territories without much difficulty; thus forcing from Cadwgan ap Elystan Glodrydd what the father had with equal injustice and in the same violent manner torn from Dryffin ap Hwgan. After this expedition Bernard appears no more as a warrior: from hence forward he applied himself to make atonement, in the usual way in those days, for any vices or irregularities committed in the course of his life. By the advice of Roger his confessor a monk of Battle he founded the Benedictine priory of Saint John the Evangelist, without the walls of Brecknock castle, which he liberally endowed and constituted a cell to Battle, rabbey. The churches, lands and tythes of Bodenham and Brunshope in Hereford- shire, Pattingham in Staffordshire, Hardingtont in Somersetshire, the manor of Berrington in Herefordshire, Llanywern: Talgarth, Llangorse and a portion of tythes in Llansaintfread in Brecknockshire, the lordship of Caernoys (Caerbannau) which in the charter of Battle abbey is called the old town, and one carucate § of land *This princess was a woman of very loose prin- ciples, and notoriously meretricious before her marriage; for by Fleance, the son of Banquo, king of Scotland, who fled to Wales, to avoid punish- ment for a murder, she had Walter Stuart, or the Steward, ancestor of the Stuarts, kings of Scotland, and afterwards of England. The honour of having killed his man was perhaps a recommendation to the lady at that time, as it is said to be since, in na- tions supposed to be more civilized. + The church of Hardington was afterwards, by consent of the abbot and monks of Battle under’ their common seal, given up by the monks of Brecknock to those of Quarre in the isle of Wight, upon payment of fifteen marks of silver by the latter, to whom it was then granted by Geoffrey Mandeville. Maddox's Form. Anglic. p. 255. : Bernard de Newmarch in his charter expressly gives Llanywern in exchange for Llanvihangel taly for fallow. Ilyn, which was part of the lands assigned to Gwrgan the eldest son of Bleddin ap Maenarch. § In the original, “carucatam terrae” and some- times caruca ; a plough-land or as much arable land as could be ploughed with one plough, during the sowing season: the measure of a carucate was different according to time and place: in the reign of Richard the second, it was computed at sixty acres, yet in another charter of the ninth of the same reign one hundred acres are alloted to a ca- rucate. Fleta who wrote in the reign of Edward the first says, that if lands lay in three common fields, a carucate consisted of one hundred and eighty acres, sixty for winter tillage, sixty for spring tillage, and sixty for fallow, but if the lands lay in two fields, then one hundred and sixty acres to a carucate, one half for tillage and the other HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE, . 97. and adjoining a mill upon the Usk and two thirds of another upon the river Honddu, the chapel within the walls of the castle, lands called Costinio, supposed to be Llangasty tål y Alyn near Brecknock mere, lands near Llyfni, and the tythes of Hay, besides other lands and domains given by his followers, were now appropriated towards the support of his new foundation, the principal management of which was given to one Walter, an intimate friend of Roger* and a brother monk of the same society, who upon the completion of the work was made prior and charged with the Kannual payment of twenty shillings as a token of filial obedience to the abbey in Surry ºf the convent of Brecknock was privileged to vote at the elections of the abbots of Battle and its priors were eligible to the abbacy. To the monks of Gloucester, Bernard in 1088: gave the manor and advowson of Glazbury, a parish . . situate in the counties of Brecknock and Radnor, the advowson, glebe and tythes - of Cowarne magna in Herefordshire, and one hyde called Bache, and all the tythes of his lordship called Brekenny or Brekenham, namely, corn, cattle, cheese, venison and honey; perhaps by this last grant is meant the great forest of Devynnock, called in all royal grants, the great forest of Brecknock; this gift was afterwards confirmed by William Rufus. The patronage of Devynnock, with one third of all the tythes of that parish, are at this day vested in the diocesan of Gloucester and in the original ‘endowment of that see, given by Sir Robert Atkyns, they are stated to be appen- dant to the dissolved monastery of Saint Peter. The manor of Glazbury was exchanged by Gilbert abbot of Gloucester, with Walter de Clifford lord of Bronllis, for that of Estleche Turville in Gloucestershire :$ but the politic abbot contrived to keep the advowson of both churches in his own hands: the patronage of Glazbury is now, by endowment vested in the bishop Of Gloucester, as is the curacy of Estleche in the dean and chapter. - - Bernard Newmarch died in the reign of king Henry the first, and as Leland says,| was buried in the cloister of the cathedral church of Gloucester; where upon the wall of the chapter-house" is inscribed, “Hic jacet Bernardus denovo mer- -catu ;” though the inhabitants of Brecknock used to shew his monument in the priory church of that town: what family he left we know not with any certainty: - Giraldus • *Tanner's Notitia Monastica. Brown Willis's mitred Abbies. + : Dugd. Mon. Atkyns's Gloucestershire. - § Dugd. Mon. Atkyns, Gloucestershire. - - -- |Itin. vol. 4. p. 53. - - - - *| Bonner, in his Itinerary, says, this inscription is on the wall of the college library at course, and that it is now concealed by the wainscoat and book shelves. . . ~ + -- - - - - - - - s 98. HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. Giraldus Cambrensis notices only two, Mahek and Sibil, yet Bernard in his charter” to the monks of Brecknock, speaks of sons and daughters, and particularly mentions, that he gives Costinio for the welfare of the soul of his son Phillip. Giraldust tells us, that according to the just laws of inheritance, Mahel should have succeeded: to his father's property, but that the persecution of an infamous woman, deprived him of his right: it seems, this unfortunate young man having provoked the ven- geance of his wicked and unnatural mother, by the discovery of a shameful intrigue carried on by her with a certain knight, whose name is not now known, was by the machinations and vile arts of the self convicted adulteress (who made oath before Henry the first king of England, that Mahel was not the son of her husband Bernard Newmarch) declared to be illegitimate and deprived of his inheritance, which upon his exclusion, devolved to Miles or Milo of Gloucester, son of Walter constable of - England, who, by his interest at court, had obtained the sister of Mahei in marriage s Phillip therefore and any othersons Bernard may have had, must have died in the life time of their father, unless the will and power of Henry prevailed to set aside the common law of descent. - - . Before I proceed to follow the descendants of the Normans, it may not be amiss to return for a moment to the issue of Bleddin ap Maenarch, and to shew generally the families who are sprung from him, leaving the more minute ramifications to the genealogical tables which will follow in the course of this work. - - Gwrgan, though narrowly watched by the dependants and friends of Bernard Newmarch, as has been seen, was yet permitted to form a connexion which pro- duced him a valuable accession of territory and added no inconsiderable weight to his political importanee in the principality. He married Gwenllian, daughter and heiress of Phillip Gwys, lord of Gwyston, since called Wiston, in Pembrokeshire, - a baron of high rank and great power in his day: with her he had this lordship, as a marriage portion, which he gave to his eldest son, called Sir Walter Gwrgan or Wogan; this branch preserved the name with a trifling alteration, and until within a very few years back continued to reside at Wiston, the venerable mansion of the family: the male line is now extinct. Cadiſor, another of the sons of Gwrgan, possessed himself of the lordship of Glyntawe in Breconshire, and part of Gower in Glamorganshire, though how he acquired them does not appear; his son Griffith. Gwyr, or Griffith of Gower, had a mesne lordship and lands in that tract; he left numerous descendants in Glamorganshire, who assumed various sirnames; among them is the family of Jones of Fonmon, who still bears the arms of his ancestor * Dugd. Mon, vol. 1. p. 320, f Itin, lib. 1. cap. 3. • +. FHISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. 99 Bleddin ap Maenarch, sable a chevron between three spear's heads argent, their points imbrued with blood proper, . . ^. To Trahaern, his second son, Gwrgan left Aberllyfni mear Glazbury, where he resided, and Llanvihangel tal y llyn; he married Ioan, daughter of Sir Einon ap Bledri; his descendants in the fourth generation were David and Einion, the latter was called from his long residence in England, Einion Sais, or the Englishman. The families sprung from David, were Lewis of Ffrwdgrech, Llangorse and Pennant, Talachddu and Manachddu in Radnorshire, Thomas of Slwch, now -extinct, Maddocks of Llanfrynach, some of whom still remain, though not at present of that place, and Jeffreys of Llywel and Brecknock: from Einion Sais are descended, Williams of Gwernyfed, Cabalfa in Radnorshire, and Gaer in Brecon- shire; this last branch failed in the male line with David Williams” of Gaer, who died in 1783: from Einion likewise sprung Sir David Gam, and of course the families of Games and Morgans of Penderin, now of Brecknock. From Cadivor, the third son of Gwrgan, are descended the Powels of Cantreff, Swansea and Peter- stone in Breconshire, Powel of Maesmawr and Jones of Trebinshwn, now *extinct, and Howel, the fourth son, was the ancestor of the family of Sais of Boverton and Swansea. Having thus briefly given the issue and posterity of Gwrgan, it will be unnecessary to follow those of the second son of Bleddin, further than merely to observe, that the Vaughans of Bredwardine, afterwards of Tretower, Porthaml, Hergest, Trebarried, Merthyr Cynog and Cathedine, who at one time, abundantly supplied the country withinhabitants, and “ scattered their Maker's image through the land,” though they are now nearly extinct, all claim their descent from Drymbenog ap Bleddin ap Maenarch. - Upon the death of Bernard Newmarch, his son in law Milo or Miles, sirnamed Fitzwalter,t generally called Milo of Gloucester, (his usual place of residence) succeeded to the lordship of Brecknock, in right of his wife Sybil, without any op- position (as far as we can learn) from his brother in law Mahel, whom the historians of these times, after the information given us of his disinherison, have thrown Quietly upon the shelf, without either putting him to death or preserving the memory of any incidents that may have occurred to him in the course of his life. The right of Miles to the property his wife brought him, obtained by her mother in the foul way just related, was certainly more than questionable, and indeed the injustice of English . . * *. 3. claims * Several of this house went to America in the beginning of the last century. --- 't Son of Walter Constable of England, by Emma, daughter of Drogo or Drue de Baladun, lord of Abergavenny. *@ 9. f00: HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. in general to lands in Wales, cannot be more:strongly, though it be rathérºnarcº. lously demonstrated, than by the admission of the king of England himself, as related. by Giraldus Cambrensis. Henry the first, being in conversation with this nobleman; Miles was införming his majesty of a strange.eircumstance that happened (or which he dreamt had happened), in his presence, while he was passing near the lake of Llynsavaddan or Llangorse pool in Breconshire, in company with Griffith the son of Rhys ap Tewdwr, the late princé of Wales: “upon the approach of the rightful. prince (says Giraldus”) the birds upon the lake joined in concert, and by the clap- ping of their wings, seemed to testify an universal joy. By the death of Christ, his usual oath, it is no wonder, there is nothing strange in fhis, (Says the king of England). for we have violently and injuriously oppressed that nation, as it is well known that, they are the natural and original proprietors of the country.” To this story, the monk of Chester alludes in his doggrel rhymes, De Terræ mirabilibus, o “Siterrae Princeps venerit ,-, * - - Aves cantare jusserit; Statim deproment modulos, - - Nil concinunt ad casteros.” Higden's Polichron. lib. 1.- . In a few years afterwards, we find the grandson of this same monarch had no scru- pulous Or compunctious visitings of conscience, when he led an army to lay waste the county of Brecon, in his march to Pencader in Caermarthenshire to attack Rhys. the son of the rightful prince Griffith, whose possessions then only consisted of the latter county and Caerdiganshire, on which occasion however he was prevailed. upon to withdraw his forces and to return into England, upon receiving the homage. of one whom he was pleased to stigmatize with the epithet of rebel. . To return to Miles; though the mode by which he obtained his Welsh possessions. eannot strictly be justified, supported as it was by the iniquitous testimony of a wretch, who in the same moment avowed her own guilt, and published her shame, yet his character both as a hero and statesman must ever stand high in the opinion. of posterity. Upon the accession of Stephen, he appears to have been born down. f by the tide. of popular opinion and the force of numbers and to have been compel- ied to swear allegiance to the usurper; immediately however upon the landing of the empress Maud, he took a decisive part in her favour, and continued her warmest. and most zealous partizan during the whole of the remainder of his life. An old. chronicle t by an anonymous author has preserved an exploit by Miles soon after- - - Stephen’s. * Itin.lib. 1. cap. 2... t. Gesta Regis Stephani, fo. 930. - History of BRECKNOCKSHIRE. 101. Stephen's assuming the crown, which if it could be depended upon would perpe- tuate his courage as well as gallantry, and place him almost in the same rank with Amadis de Gaul, Orlando Furioso, or any other visionary hero of romance. Lord Lyttleton, in his life of Henry the second, has erroneously referred to Giraldus Cam- brensis for this, anecdote; but the story of the assistance rendered by Milo to the eountess of Clare, widow of Richard Fitzgilbert or Richard de Tonbrugge, or Clare, first earl of Hertford, is quoted by Carte with more accuracy from the chronicle: mentioned below,” where we learn that this Richard was betrayed and murdered by the Welsh at the very time when he proposed joining them in an insurrection: against the king of England, and that his lady, who was sister to the earl of Ches- ter, being soon after the death of her husband, besieged in one of his castles in Caerdiganshire, with scarcely any expectations of relief, was almost miraculously saved from death, or perhaps a more ignominious fate, by the interference and bra- very of Milo Fitzwalter, who with a handful of men, at the command of king Stephen, marched through an enemy's country, over the tops of mountains and through im- pervious wilds and brought her and her whole suite safe into England, leaving the besiegers to batter bare walls and to plunder a deserted fortress. The Welsh chro- nicle gives a very different account of the death of the earl of Clare and the siege of his castle. In this year (Í138) there was a dispute between king Stephen and his nobles (says this history) and the king laid siege to Lincoln, where they were assembled. To their assistance came Robert Consul, who brought a great army of Welshmen with him, to support the cause of his sister Maud, who had married the emperor of Germany; with Robert also came Ralph, earl of Chester, and the men of Rhyfoniog and Tegengyl and Gilbert, earl of Clare, with a strong force from Dyfed: and the Norman and Saxon nobility pressed hard upon the king and took him prisoner, and in that battle, the valour of the Welsh was particularly conspicuous, In this conflict, Iorwerth ap Owen ap Caradoc, led the van, leaving the earl of Clare in his rear; this, the earl resented highly, and soon afterwards seeing Iorwerth by the riverside fishing, he struck him a violent blow on the ear, at the same time calling him a clownish Welshman, and telling him he was totally ignorant of the manners. of a gentleman, or he would not have presumed to take the lead of his superior, The Briton, though he might want politeness, certainly did not want courage, the only answer therefore he returned to this rude address (as far as now appears) was by laying the assailant dead at his feet with one blow of his fist. Upon hearing of this event, the Welsh immediately laid siege to the castle of Uwchtryd in Caerdigan- # - * . shire, * Bruty Tywysogion. *~. {{}% HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. shire, to which place the countess of Clare had retired from Carmarthen for safety, and compelled the garrison to fly for their lives.” g Thus differently related are the transactions of these days by the historians of the two different countries, the reader will determine to which he will give credit, my opinion is (loath as I am to deprive the lord of Brecknock of the honour of this gal- lant adventure) that the whole story, as related by the Gesta Regis Stephani, appears to be extremely doubtful as well as improbable and not sufficiently authenticated: Giraldus Cambrensis, though he wrote soon after this supposed event, and though he frequently mentions the name of Milo Fitzwalter, says not a syllable of his having rescued the countess of Clare from her enemies, and the whole of this tale, unsup- ported as it is, except by an anonymous writer, savours too much of the marvel- lous. On the other hand, the Welsh were so far from distinguishing themselves in this fight, (though their defeat throws little, if any, disgrace upon their national character) that being thinly clad and poorly armed, they were put to flight on the first onset of the king's troops under William D’Ypres, whose coats of mail and “ribs of steel” were impenetrable to the rude weapons of the mountaineers. The name of Gilbert has likewise been inaccurately introduced by the British historian, instead of Richard Fitzgilbert, and the latter part of the account in which the lady and the garrison, who fled into the castle for safety, are made to fly out of it for the same purpose into the very heart of an enemy's country, is confused, if not incredible. ~. * - - Milo Fitzwalter was another knight of the dolorous tower, or ceidwad y castell dolurus, being in his own right as constable of all England, governor or keeper of the king's castle of Gloucester, (for it was then a royal fortress): he had a considerable property in and about this city,f and here he generally resided: Stephen, king of England, soon after his accession to the throne, granted by charter to him and his heirs, this his patrimony, as well as the lordship of Brecknock, as fully as he enjoyed them in the time of the late king, and in this fortress Milo received, in his official capacity, his sovereign, after the battle of Bedford, or as some say, in his return from his journey to Scotland: from this place and at this time, if the account just mentioned be correct, he must have been dispatched by Stephen to the relief of the countess of Clare, as he never afterwards appeared in the character of the king's - - friend * Powel, who, (to use his own phrase) professes f It is said that the land whereon the castle of to English, the history of Cradoc of Llancarvan or Gloucester was built by his father Walter, the se- Brut y Tywysogion, omits the whole of this account cond constable of England, was the inheritance of and though he describes the Battle of Lincoln in the Milo. - same manner with the English historians, he does # Madox's history of the Exch. vol. 1. note not even notice the presence of the earl of Clare in p. 199, . . . £" , that engagement : HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. | 103 friend or subject; for upon the arrival of the empress Maud, in this island, (as has been just noticed) being either satisfied of her right to the crown, or persuaded by her half brother, Robert, earl of Gloucester, a natural son of Henry the first, and in right of his wife, the daughter of Robert Fitzhammon, also lord of Glamorgan, he joined her with all his forces, and supported her by every exertion in his power: his influence was at this time very considerable, as he had not only the seign- - iory of the whole of Brecknockshire, but also ample possessions in Herefordshire and Gloucestershire. “The power of this baron (says the noble author of the life of Henry the seond) was of no less use to Matilda, than his personal talents: very few men in those times were comparable to him, either in counsel or action. By his activity, valour and discretion, and the abilities of the earl of Gloucester, who had all the great qualities that are necessary in the head of a party, and all the virtues that could be consistent with the unhappy necessities of that situation; the cause of the empress was supported, and with their help, she gained strength, though unassisted by any foreign power, and without any other means than what she drew from the war itself, or from the voluntary aid of her friends, being in such want of money, that even her houshold and table were kept at Milo's expence in the castle of Gloucester.” In reward for his services, the empress in 1141 created him earl of Hereford, and together with the title, she gave him real fiefs, for by the instrument” of his creation, the first of its kind in English history, she gave him the moat and castle of Hereford, the third penny of the rent of the borough, and the third penny of the pleas of the whole county, the manors of Mawardine, (Marden), Lugwardine, Wilton, Hay Hereford, the forest of Trinela, and lastly the services of Robert de Chandos, Hugh Fitzwilliam and Robert de Cormeill.i. This document, dated at Hereford, is attested, among many others, by David king of Scotland, Bernard bishop of Saint Davids, Robert earl of Gloucester and Humphrey de Bohun the first. To follow Miles through the different struggles and vicissitudes of fortune, which occurred in his short career, would beforeign to my purpose; suffice it to say, that he served his mistress ably and faithfully, as well in adversity as prosperity : unluck- ily for her, perhaps happily for the nation (for she knew not how to conduct her- self when in power) she was deprived of the talents and assistance of this great man, he was shot accidentally through the heart by an arrow, by one of his own knights, who accompanied him in hunting, and who aimed at a stag passing between them: - this * In this grant, Maud calls herself “Empress, daughter of king Henry and lady of the English nation, * Matilda, Imperatrix, Henrici Regis Filia, et Anglorum Domina.” - f Rymer's Faedera, tom. 1. p. 8. 104 HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE, this happened on Christmas eve 1143, or as others 1144. His continued exertions in favour and support of the cause he espoused in England, though of infinite ad- wantage to the party he served, left him little time to attend to his possessions in Wales, which he seldom if ever visited; he is not found among the benefactors to the monastery or contributors to the liberties of the town of Brecon, although the benevolence” of the Welshmen frequently furnished a part of the repast of her im- perial majesty, and his other guests at Gloucester. In the year 1795, an antient seal of this earl was found by some labourers who were digging in a field near Andover in Hampshire,t in the direct line between the city of Winchester and Luggershall, to which latter place the empress escaped in her way to Devizes: it is probable her friend Miles, who was compelled to pass the enemy's camp bare footed, and in the disguise of a beggar, in order to join his royal mistress at Gloucester, threw away this tell-tale badge of distinction in the field where it was picked up, to effect his purpose with less risk of being discovered; it is of silver and weighs three oun- ces and three penny weights, quite plain on the reverse, and had a neck or loop on the top, for ribband, by which it was most probably suspended and worn, as a badge or ornament. Milo was buried in the chapter house of Saint Mary de Lantoni, near Gloucester,i . of which he was the founder; his wife Sybil was placed on his right side: he left five sons, each of whom, excepting William, enjoyed his property, and three daugh- ters, Margery married to Humphrey de Bohun, Bertha, to Phillip de Breos, and Lucy to Herbert Fitzherbert. - * - Upon the death of Milo Fitzwalter, his eldest son Röger, succeeded tº the earl- dom of Hereford and lordship of Brecknock, together with most of his father's possessions; he married $ Cecilia, daughter of Payne Fitzjohn, a privy counsellor of Henry the first, and lord of Ewyas in Herefordshire, in whose right he became pos- sessed of that territory. Cartel says, he was an active, valiant and deserving man, but young and inexperienced and unequal to his father : he possessed an early attachment to Henry the second the son of his father's friend the empress Maud. - - - - ſ - Upon # Upon the conquest of Breconshire by Bernard. Newmarch and upon ereeting castles in the county by the Normans, they compelled the tenantly to provide a certain number of cattle for the lord's larder yearly, in proportion to the quantity of lands they held; this exaction (in an insulting and sarcastic phraseology) they called “the benevolence ºf Gent's, magazine, Sept. 1795. . . . § Dugd, Bar, vol. 1. p. 337. of the Welshmen. The Vuwch Larder or mem- eñto of this custom or subjection is known and re- collected at this day and the figure of a cow, rude- ly carved in wood, was until very lately, seen over a window in the present manor house within the castle of Brécknock. : Hearne's antiqn.discourses, vol. 2. p. 68. |Hist, Eng, vol. 1. p. 551. - HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. 105 Upon the arrival of that prince in England, he accompanied him to the court of David king of Scotland, who had promised him assistance to oppose the arms of Stephen, and had in other instances shewn a sincere regard for his interest. Soon after the succession however of that great and good monarch to the throne of Eng- land, the harmony which subsisted between them was interrupted. Stephen, who during the whole of his life lay at the mercy of his nobles, and had not the power of resisting their exorbitant demands, had alienated so much of the crown demesnes, that a sufficiency was not left to maintain the royal dignity. Some cities and forts had been granted away, which it would have been imprudent to have per- mitted to remain in the hands of those to whom they were given, as the possessors were supposed to be inimical to the power of the crown and the peace of the na- tion. Henry found it absolutely necessary to recall most of these grants without discrimination, whether made by Stephen or his mother; but the sound policy which dictated, and the impartiality with which this measure was executed, was neither admitted or approved of by the young lord of Brecknock: he could not comprehend or believe that private gratitude should give way to public advantage, or that the foes and friends of the monarch should be treated by the same rule: he was also encouraged and instigated to resistance by the earl of Yorkshire and Roger de Mortimer, both of whom were likely to suffer by this resolution of the king; but Henry was no common opponent: it was the will of providence that he should be humbled, to convince him, as well as posterity, of the vanity of human grandeur, and the imbecility of the wisest designs of princes, yet one only of his subjects could resist him with impunity, and even he, after having spurned at the power that raised him and distracted and divided the kingdom into parties, at last fell a sacrifice to the general, though too ardent attachment to the sovereign. Gilbert Foliott, bishop of Hereford, a wise and virtuous prelate and a kinsman and friend to earl Roger, saw the precipice to which he was approaching and warned him in time of his danger: by seasonable and sound arguments he prevailed upon him to give up to Henry the castles of Gloucester and Hereford, which he claimed. Henry not only pardoned but restored the earl to favour; for though the rigid rules of justice compelled him to act with this apparent harshness towards the son of one of his mother's best friends, it was impossible to overlook the hardship of his case, and to avoid lamenting that it should become necessary to include him in the same class with the descendants of the depredators of the late. reign, and therefore it is by no means improbable, that Henry commissi- oned the bishop to hint to him the consequences of his submission, Camden - says, 106 HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE, says, the moat and castle of Hereford were restored to him with all the original privileges attached to the earldom. - It is very extraordinary that we know not with certainty whether this earl was a very good or a very bad man; we are informed that he was active and valiant, and we have seen that he was hasty and impetuous, but whether a few crimes, such as homicide or murder, sacrilege, rapes or such fashionable offences of the day, suggested his numerous benefactions to the church, or they were really dictated by devotion, we know not, both these motives, though of so opposite complexions and natures, were beneficial to the temporary concerns of the religi- ous of those times, but inasmuch as crimes were more prevalent than piety, the doctrine of compensation was the most productive of the two. If a neighbouring baron or rich man was troublesome and by accident or the chances of war fell into the power of his adversary or superior, he was knocked on the head, and by this means three principal points were gained, in the first place the great man “ thank'd God he was rid of a knave,” in the second he industriously employed himself in securing the effects of his late prisoner, part of which he appropriated to the benefit of some religious house, and lastly by this gift he not only rubbed off a long score of guilt from his conscience, but advanced considerably on his road to future happiness, and he also, in a case of this kind, had an irresistible claim upon the monks for their intercessions and prayers, which after such a clear proof of the sinner's repentance were always presumed to be efficacious; as however history has not recorded any flagitious actions of this young man, or branded his charae- ter with opprobrium, charity should induce us to attribute his donations to lauda- ble motives, and under this impression I proceed to enumerate them. To the monks of Brecknock he was particularly munificent and bountiful, having augmented their privileges and revenues by five several charters now extant; by the first charter he granted the prior and convent the privilege of maintaining their own jurisdiction in all things, within such liberties as were consistent with the dignity of holy mother church; he also thereby granted them, the land of Saint Paulinus upon the mere, (now called Llangorse pool) with the li- berty of fishing in the mere three days in the week, and every day during the terms of lent and advent; he gave them the tythes of all his colts, calves, lambs, cheese, wool and flax and of all things tythable within the forest, throughout the whole lordship of Brecknock, and the tythes of whatever might be provided for consumption within his demesne, whether he should be absent or present; the tythes of his - r’ - - larder * - HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. | 107 larder*at Hay; the tythes of all cattle arising from the free gift of the Welshmen; the tythes of whatever plunder he took in wart from his enemies, and also a free right of commonage throughout his whole territory of Brecknock, and lastly he confirmed and enlarged the charter of his grandfather Bernard de Newmarch. In the second charter he confirmed their full, free and peaceable jurisdiction over all their tenants, lands and possessions, and all things relating thereto, he granted them the tythes of all bread and drink, which should be expended in his castle of Brecknock and in all other his demesnes throughout the lordship of Brecknock, or in lieu thereof (to guard against the peculation or neglect of ser. vants) the tythes of all his corn at the doors of his grange at the castle of Breck- nock, at Talgarth and Hay, likewise of all pulse which after the first tything: should be discharged from the claims of other churches to which they had been before granted, and should any lands or manors out of the lordship of Brecknock by any event come into his hands, he granted them the like privileges therein he also gave them the tythes of all tolls; arising from the carriage of goods from his lordships in England to his territories in Wales, he confirmed to them the churches : of Talgarth, Mara (or Llan gorse.) Llanigon, Llangelen (perhaps Llanelieu) and Cathedin, also the English churches mentioned in the charter of Newmarch; he gave them the tythes of the profits of all his pleas, tolls, gifts and returns issuing from Brecknock, and of all goods and chattels which he had gained in Wales, he also renewed and confirmed to them the mentioned in his former charter. - By the third charter he again confirmed to them their right of jurisdiction, &c. granted to them a certain ruinated city, or rather the scite of a city called Carneys, right of fishing and free pasturage as and repeated proofs may be produced from many Roman authors of offerings to the Gods of part of the plunder taken from their enemies. * Larder from the old Norman French “Lardier” a room for keeping provisions. The Normans had one in every castle, which was principally with supplied by the benevolence of the Welshmen. f Siligular as this grant now appears, there is a precedent for it as far back as the days of Abraham; for we find by Genesis, c. 14, v. 20, that that Pa- triarch gave tythes of all, meaning (as Bishop Patrick in his commentary very properly observes) the tythes of all the spoil which he had taken from Chedorlaomer and other kings in battle, to Melchisedeck, or the church : the same learned prelate remarks that Diodorus Siculus reports the game customs to have prevailed among the Greeks, P † For the elucidation of this passage, it may be necessary to remind the reader, that Bernard Newmarch had before granted considerable tythes in this county to the monks of Gloucester, as had Earl Miles to the monks of Malvern, which claims must necessarily be satisfied, before this extraordi. nary grant of earl Roger could possibly have effect. 5 Summagium, (the Latin word in the original) signifies a horse load or rather the toll for the car. riage of each horseload. Wide Spelman's gloss: Manley's interp. subverb. - ~ C} 10s HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRs. ~t with its dependencies, extending from Aberescir, as far as the brook of Cilieni, *. and Llanywern as far as Maeslydan. He also gave them all the mills within the parish of Brecknock, with the entire tollst thereof and all the customs, liberties and appurtenances belonging thereto, and he prohibited the erection of any other mill within the parish, excepting by the monks alone; he also granted them certain lands called Trewalkin and Penllanavel, &c. and concluded by a recital and renewal of his former grants. The fourth charter is little more than a confirmation of his former benefactions, with the addition of the tythes of pigs of his pannage.: The fifth charter is noticed by inspeximus in one of Henry the fourth, though not inserted in Dugdale; by this he confirmed to the monks, in perpetual alms, certain Hands given them by Osmond de Traneleia, with a burgage in Brecknock and an - acre of ground without the walls; (extra Barram). . -- - Besides these donations to the monastery or Priory of Brecknock he gave in perpetual alms to the church of our lady within the valley of Dor, Şor rather D'or or the golden valley, all his land which lieth from the head of the well called Ailburwell the More, on the side towards the forest, with common of pasture with the appurtenances. He also gave to the church of St. Mary at Clifford in Here- fordshire, and to the monks of Saint Pancratius there, the full liberty of buying and selling all commodities free from all gabels and tolls and exempted from all fines, suits and customs whatsoever, within the territories of Hay and Brecknock and all other his possessions on that side of the river Wye. To the knights tem- plars he gave certain lands near Gloucester bridge, and to the knights hospitallers his mill at Towcester, belonging to the preceptory of Shengay: he founded the abbey of Flaxley in Gloucestershire, and at length became himself a monk in the abbey of Gloucester, upon which he settled a rent charge of one hundred shillings a year, payable out of his estates in Herefordshire: he died in 1156 without issue -- • - •, and - * Kilinot in the original, and in another charter French signifies acorning, or the collecting of Kilimot, Cilieni however I presume is meant. This is a river which falls into the Usk on the North side about seven miles above Brecon, and four or five above the Escir. Maeslydan (Broadfield) is called in the old charters Nantslidin. ºf Cum tota moltura, from molo the mill to be ground, but more frequently, as here, the toll paid for grinding; thus, molturalibera, free grinding, or a right to grind without paying toll; a privilege which the lord usual ly reserved to his own - family. - - - . # “De pannagio meo,” pannage in Norman. to grind, sig- mifies sometimes grist or a sack of corn brought to acorns for feeding swine, afterwards Pannagium. meant a sum paid for leave to feed swine in a forest or wood of another person, by one who had no right to the soil; it is sometimes written pathna- gium and pasnagium; foresters call it pannage. $York's union of honour. |Leland says “there was a brother of Roger erle of Hereford that was kyllydin the veri place where the abbaye syns was made. the matier hangged up in the church of Flealey.” Itin. vol. 8, p. 66. Leland or his informant is in- correct, the table was most likely meant to come memorate the death of Milo at this place. *s Ther was a table of HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSH: R.E. 109. and was buried near his grandfather Bernard Newmarch, in what is now converted into the college library at Gloucester, - - fit is remarkable that Sir William Óugdale in the monasticon makes” Henry, and in his baronaget Walier, to be the second son of Miles earl of Hereford: the former must have been a typographical mistake, as it is manifest from a variety of evi- dence that Walter had the advantage of his brother Henry in primogeniture. In the father's charter; to the priory of Lantoni secunda, he speaks of his sons Roger, Waiter and Henry ; the same rotation is observed in the inspeximus of that charter by King john. In Holland and in Edmondson's list of constabies of England, Walter immediately, follows his brother Roger, and in their brother * Mahel's charter to the monks of Brecknock he says, “whatever my brothers earl Roger, Walter the constable and Henry and their tenants granted to the said church &c. I have confirmed.” In this Walter (who undoubtedly succeeded his brother Roger as constable of England, though Robert Montenci says, Henry took the earldom of Hereford into his own hands) were united the lordships of Breck- nock and Overwent. According to Leland $* the hole lordship of Abergavenny makith the cumpace of Hye Wetland”; this territory, which under the British princes of Gwent or Morganwg had been governed by its own native reguli, was: first conquered by Hammeline the son of Dru or Drogo de Baladun, who soon after the conquest built a castle on the scite of one formerly occupied by a British chieftain of the name of Agros, Hammeline died in the reign of Wm. Rufus, and was buried in the priory of Benedictines at Abergavenny, which he had founded. Ry default of issue, the castle, with the lordship of Overwent appendant thereto, descended to his nephew, sirnamed De insula or Fitzcomte, who having two sons. afflicted with the leprosy, placed them in the priory, which he liberally endowed with lands, advowsons of churches, and the tythes of the castle: at length, seized with the religious phrensy of the times, he took up the cross and went to Jerusa- lem, leaving the whole of his property to his cousin Walter, constable of England, who afterwards during the life time of his son Miles settled it upon his grandson Waiter de Hereford. In the year 1155 Walteroccurs as high sheriff for the county of Gloucester, and the eleventh of Henry the second, for Herefordshire, of which county he is the first recorded sheriff. In lieu of the hundred shillings settled on the monks of Gloucester by his brother earl Roger, he granted them six virgates of land. . . .: - - . - . . . . - Upon *Vol.1, p. 539. t Vol. 1. p. 537. Atkyns's Gloucestershire, p. 272. § Itin. vol. 5. p. 7. Dugd. Mon, vol. 1. p. 337. 110 HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. a Upon the death of Walter, the lordship of Brecknock became the inheritance of Henry de Hereford, third son of Milo, which however he lived to enjoy only for a short time. Dugdale” says, he was killed by one Senel the son of Donwald, near Arnold's castle in upper Wentland, and that he was buried in Llantoni prima; according to Leland, in Lantoninear Gloucester; whether this slayer was an English - or a Welshman does not appear, probably from the place of Henry's death he was of the latter country, and perhaps Senel the son of Donwald is an anglicism for Sitsyllt ap Dyfūwal, a man of considerable property and weight at that time in the neighbourhood of Abergavenny. Dr. Powel in his Welsh historyt observes, that towards the latter end of the year 1172, “Sitsyllt ap Dyfnwal and Jeuan ap Sitsyllt ap Riryd got the castle of Abergavenny upon the sudden and took the king's garrison prisoners.” Maddoxin his Baronia Anglicana: speaks of certain lands called Donewalde's lands within the town of Abergavenny, as having been the subject of a legal dispute in the time of Edward the first; these were undoubt- - edly Tyr Dyfnwal or Dyfnwal's lands. . . . - . . . . Mahel de Hereford, who received his christian name in compliment to his gal- lant but unfortunate and disinherited uncle, succeeded his brother Henry, upon his death without issue; he is painted as a monster of rapacity and boundless ." ambition andavarice, “in humana prae caeteris crudeh tate notabilis,” but his Oppres- sions and most flagrant acts of injustice were particularly directed against David Fitzgerald, the second of that name, bishop of Saint David's, whom he distressed by every means in his power, encroaching upon his property, and harassing his tenants, insomuch that he finally drove the prelate out of the country, “adeout a finibus Brechiniauc non præsul jam sed tanquam exul existens, tam quam alias - Diocesis suae partes frequ entaret,” such are the words of Giraldus Cambrensis,Swho then proceeds to give the following account of Maher's death. “It happe ned (says he) that while Mahel was upon a visit to Walter de Clifford at Brendlais castle, the building by some accident took fire, and he was mortally wounded by a stone which fell from the top of the principal tower upon his head: upon this, he immediately dispatehed messengers to the bishop whom he had persecuted, and solicited his return, at the same time exclaiming in a tone of deep anguish, “Oh father and . bishop of our souls! thine Holy one hath exercised too severe a vengeance upon me, not waiting for the conversion of a sinner, but rather hastening his death. and utter destruction;” and having frequently repeated these words, accompanied with groans and deep sighs, he ended his life and tyranny together before he had com-- pleated the first year of his possession of his father's property, and died the herald of his own confusion: this catastrophe is noticed by Camden in his description of •. Gloucestershire, • Mon, vol. 1. p. 557. f Quarto, 1584, P. 232. : Lib. 3, p. 189. § Itin, lib. 1. cap, 2, - rººt zºº. . ºº:: * - º - Aº, , ; *...*...* < . --- | N § º º º º º º º º - º ºt --- º t ºr tº tº º Mº; º: sº º, N º: §§§ §§ § º º º 3. - - º º º | º º g - - . HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. }} { Gloucestershire, as well as by Sir Robert Atkyns in his history of that county, but they are both evidently mistaken as to the scene of action, which they place at Saint Briavels or Breulais in the forest of Dean, whereas Giraldus professedly writing from Brecknockshire, calls the castle Brendlais, which Powel in a note 3. Brunellys, now written Bronllys, Brynllys and Brwynllys; it lies within less than half a mile of Talgarth in that county; and both Leland and Dugdale inform us, that the Cliffords were the antient lords and proprietors of that fortress. However strongly this monster Mahel might have been prejudiced against the bishop of Saint David's, yet out of regard to the health of his own soul and the souls of his father, mother, brothers and ancestors, and out of respect to Geoffrey the cook, an old servant of the family, whom his brother Henry had converted into a monk, he granted a charter to the monastery of Brecon, whereby he confirmed all former gifts to them, and gave five shillings a year towards purchasing lights and other purposes, which he supposed would be beneficial to the brotherhood. This charter, among others, is attested by Humphrey de Bohun his nephew, Walter de Clifford, Ralph de Buscheville (Baskerville,) Philip de Burghull, (now called Bur- field) the butler, Roger Picart and William W.eldeboef, now written Walbeoff. William, the youngest son of Milo, died without issue, during the life time of his eldest brother; so that the male line being now extinct, the sisters coheiresses succeeded to the inheritance. Margaret, the eldest daughter, married Humphrey de Bohun, who in her right succeeded to the constableship of England and to the lordship and patronage of Llantoni; he was also created earl of Hereford: Bertha married Philip de Breos, lord of Builth,” which he acquired by conquest; he had with her the lordships of Brecknock, Abergavenny and Gower; and Lucy married Henry Fitzherbert, whose possessions were chiefly in and near the forest of Dean, and who had also other lands in England. The family of Brus (as it is written in Stow's. roll, copied from Scriven's MS. though spelt differently Breos, de Breos, Breosa, Braiosa, Braosa and de Braosat by - ... • - , . " - differen ºxplains £ * Of the expedition of this Philip de Breos into Wales and his conquest of Builth we have no fur- ther account; but it is by no means improbable that he likewise accompanied Roger de Newburgh when he came to the assistance of Bernard.Newmarch in 1098 or thereabouts, and that he was rewarded with the country of Builth after he had reduced the this lordship or honour; so that it appears this fam- ily had considerable possessions in Normandy inhabitants to subjection. † In a charter of king John, one of this family is called Braiosa : by this instrument John grants to Wm. de Braiosa and his heirs, that neither sheriff. ºr other minister of the crown should enter into the lands of William pertaining to the honour of Bra- iosa, to do any part of his office there, and that when the king's justices itinerant came to Faleise to hold pleas of the crown, William was to provide them with necessaries for one day at Braiosa; by this charter he also grants several privileges and exemp- tions to the feudatories and tenants of William iñ when they came over with the conqueror, which they retained for a long time after their settlement. in England. . . - 112 - HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSłyſłłº. different authors) came into England with the conqueror and settled first in the county of Sussex. William the father of Philip, our first Breconshire lord of that name, married the wealthy heiress of Johel de Totness and Barnstaple in the county of Devon, with whom he obtained a splendid fortune: that his lands in England were of no small extent is evident from the general survey in doomsday book, by which it appears, that he possessed the lordship of Sudcote in Berkshire, Essage in Wilts, Todeham and Bockeham in Surry, half a hyde of lands in Petham hundred in Hants, twelve lordships in Dorsetshire and no less than forty one in Sussex, among which Brambre, where he obtained a licence to build a castle, was his principal residence: he settled the churches of St. Nicholas at Brambre, St. Peter at Sele, St. Nicholas at Shoreham and St. Peter at Vipont, all in the county of Surry upon the monks of St. Florence de Salmure, now commonly called Somars in France.* ". - : His only son and successor Philip gave to the abbey of Lewes four of the salt works in the same town and confirmed some donations made them by his father. In the ninth of William Rufus, Philip de Breos was one of those noblemen who adhered to the king against Robert Court-hose duke of Normandy. In the fourth of Henry the first t he came to an agreement with the abbot of Feschamp at Salisbury, in the presence of the king and queen, concerning some claim made by the abbot to certain lands at Steyning in Sussex, a cell to Feschamp: having after- wards rebelled against his sovereign, his property was confiscated and his posses- sions were seized by the crown. By his marriage with Bertha the daughter of Milo Fitzwalter, he became in her right, seized of the lordships of Abergavenny, Brecknock and Gower, and to his sword and the favor of Bernard Newmarch he owed the dominion over the country of Builth: he died early in the reign of Henry the second, in what year is not known, leaving two sous, William and Philip: William, to whom the lordships of Brecknock and Abergavenny, together with the remainder of his father's immense possessions, descended, married Maud daughter of Reginald de St. Waleri, with whom he had the manor of Tetbury in Gloucestershire. This lady is the Seniramis of Brecknockshire, she is called in the pedigrees, as well as in king John's letter or manifesto, Maud de Haia, either from her having rebuilt this castle or from its being principally the place of her residence; most likely for the former reason; for within the limits of the county of Brecon she is an Ubiquarian. Under the corrupted name of Mol § - Walee - * Dugd. Bar. vol. 1. p. 414. + 1 104. , # Maud is written and pronounced Mallt in Robert Atkyns in his history of Gloucestershire, Welsh; Leland calls her Malt Albere Mºra/run, writes this name Walerick, others St. Valery. and says she was reputed a witch. vol. 5. p. 72, Sir ". ., HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. 113 Walbee we have her castles on every eminence and her feats are traditionally narrated in every parish; she built (say the Gossips) the castle of Hay in one night; the stones * for which she carried in her apron: while she was thus em- ployed, a small pebble, of-about nine feet long and one foot thick, dropped into her shoe: this she did not at first regard, but in a short time, finding it trouble- some, she indignantly threw it over the river Wye, into Llowes churchyard in Radnorshire (about three miles off.) where it remains to this day, precisely in the position it fell, a stubborn memorial of the historicalfact, to the utter con- fusion of all sceptics and unbelievers.t. It is very extraordinary what could have procured to Maud this more than mortal celebrity: she was no doubt a woman of masculine understanding and spirit, yet her exploits in Breconshire where she is so famous, are not detailed either by history or tradition, except in the absurd tale just related. King J ohn in his declaration against de Breos seems to hint pretty clearly, that the gray mare was the better horse, and it is evident, whatever her merit was, that she had considerable influence and interest in this county, as her name, though corrupted, is familiar to every peasant, while her husband's is un- known, or known only to be detested. - “ , ~. , In 3rd Henry 26 we find William de Breos the husband of this virago, paying a fine of one hundred marks of silver for his moiety of the manor of Barn- staple, of which his grandfather Johel de Totnais or Totness for some misde- meanour had been deprived by William Rufus; it is probable therefore, that Tot- ness was also at this time restored to de Breos. In the tenth year of this reign, William de Breos occurs as one of the witnesses to the recognition called the con- stitutions * A rude stone effigy in the church yard of Hay, is said to be Mol Walbee's, though I believe it to be a monk's, perhaps one of the priors of Brecon, to which house it has been seen, Newmarch gave the tythes of this parish. The fable of her carrying the stones and compleating the castle of Hay in one, night, perhaps means that she collected, or rather extorted from her tenants a sum sufficient for the purpose in avery short time. * + There are those who blind to conviction, Sup- pose this to be the burying place of an Anchorite named Wechlen, who was miraculously taught to talk Latin whgrammatically and to use the infinitive instead of the indicative mood: Giraldus Cambrensis in his account of his life, gives us the language of this man of God thus; “I to go to Jer- asalem, and the Sepulchre of our Lord, and when if not better attested. to return I to place myself in solitude, for the love of my master, who to die for me, and much I to grieve because I not to understand the Latin tongue and the mass and the gospels in that language, and often to weep and to pray to God to enable me to under- stand it: at length one day, I to call my servant at meal time and not to find him; tired and hungry I to sleep,” &c. &c. &c.—and so—and so—and so —he awoke and talked in bad Latin, though it seems he understood the language as well as Cice- ro. It is dangerous to resist the strong current of tradition and popular opinion; for instance, in this case the tale of Maud and her pebble is full as . likely to be true as that of the Anchorite, and of course comes from an authority more numerously. Q 1:4 HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. - constitutions of Clarendon, and in the nineteenth, twentieth and twenty first of the same king he was sheriff of Herefordshire. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Though the power as well as the wealth of this baron was very considerable, we do not hear of his exploits during the reign of Henry the second, with whom it. seems he was in high favour: his younger brother Philip de Breos had a grant * from that monarch of the whole province of North Munster in Ireland, except the city of Limerick, and the only preliminary required towards the establishment of his government was the conquest of the country : to assist him in his enterprize he * took with him Milo de Cogan, William Fitzstephen and about four hundred and - twenty horse and foot; they marched to the borders of the Shannon, when finding that the taking possession of the land was not a mere ceremony, but might be attended with some hard fighting, they returned ingloriously to their sovereign, to relate the misfortunes of their expedition and to exaggerate the difficulties they encountered: Henry however was not to be deterred or frightened by bugbears, he embarked in person for Ireland, and with him weat the defeated Philip de Breos, who either encouraged by the presence of his sovereign, or ashamed of his former misconduct, now exerted himself in wiping off the disgrace which at- tached to him, and by the assistance of Henry seated himself firmly in his govern- ment, in possession of which his benefactor left him, as well as several other English knights, who had obtained territories in that kingdom; and it will be seen here- after, that upon the death of his brother without issue, it descended or was granted to his brother William, who lived (during Philip's first attempt) at the castle of Abergavenny, where he and his “murdering ministers” involved themselves in such a scene of butchery as fortunately for mankind has seldom been parallelled. f & 4 Pity like a new born babe * . - . . . . Striding the blast, or heaven's cherubin horsed Upon the sightless couriers of the air . Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye.” .*.* And while it is with pain the historian records this taſe of blood, he may per haps be pardoned if he expresses a satisfaction in consigning the memory of this hypocritical villaim to perpetual infamy. . It has been seen that about five years previous to this time, the castle of Aber- s gavenny had been delivered by the treachery of the officers of the king of England, into the hands of Sitsyllt ap Dyfnwal and Jeuan ap Ryrid, two noblemen of Gwent, after which a warfare ensued between them and Henry the second, which .# . - - Waš ; *Lord Lyttleton's Henry the second, vol. 6. p.94. from Giraldus Cambrensis. . * HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. 115 was terminated in the year 1176, the castle restored to William de Breos, and Sitsyllt and the associate of Ryrid received the king's pardon, through the inter- cession of Rhys ap Griffith of Dinas fawr or Dinevor: it was to congratulate Rhys upon this reconciliation, according to Powel and the Welsh chronicles, though lord Lyttleton from Ralph de Diceto” says, it was to notify to Sitsyllt and his adher- ents an act of the English parliament prohibiting them from wearing arms or offensive weapons, that they became the guests of William at his castle: at first they were treated with the hospitality they expected, but in the midst of their conviviality, their host, either from a design to provoke a quarrel or in obedience to the instructions of his master the king of England, made them the degrading proposal of surrendering their weapons and submitting without the power of de- fence to his will: to this the Britons refused with indignation to accede; whereupon the assassin gave a signal to his journeymen, who entering the room, slew the un- suspecting and unarmed Welshmen, and not satisfied with this, they accompanied their employer to Sitsyllt's castle in the neighbourhood of Abergavenny, where taking his wife prisoner, they murdered her son Cadwaladr before her face and set fire to the mansion, or as others say, rased it to the ground. Lord Lyttleton menti- ons this transaction with great coolness of temper, without even expressing his indignation at the horrid scene, though he seems to be rather surprized that Henry the second did not notice it; while Giraldus Cambrensis hints, that it was per- petrated by the orders of the English monarch, an insinuation which should not have been thrown out without better proofs to justify him than have hitherto ap- peared to the world, and without which no man who reflects upon the different characters of William de Breos and his supposed employer, will acquit the one or accuse the other, however he may condemn Henry for his negligence or rather partiality in overlooking the offence: but the measure of this monster's iniquity was not yet full, though he never afterwards had an opportunity of converting his castle into a slaughter house and murdering en masse; for about the year 1198, we find him using the same artful and nefarious stratagem to entrap a chieftain of Brecknockshire, against whom he entertained a secret grudge. Trahaern Wychan or the little, lord of Llangorse, one of the grandsons of Gwrgan ap Bleddin ap Maenarch, was invited to meet him to confer in a friendly manner upon business: unsuspicious of treachery and of course unprepared for defence, the descendant of Cradoc of the Strong arm instantly determined to attend to the request, or to obey the command of his powerful neighbour and superior, who met him upon his road - not * Lyttleton's H. 2, vol. 6, p. 123. Q 2 116 HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. not far from Brecknock, ordered his blood hounds to seize him, tied him to a horse's tail and in that situation ignominiously and cruelly dragged him through the streets of that town, after which he was beheaded and his body suspended upon a gallows for three successive days. # Repeated acts of tyranny and oppression will make even cowards brave; how ‘strong and implacable then must have been the resentment of the Welsh; “a people brave and irascible, bred upon their mountains, the indigºnous children of freedom”? The castle of Abergavenny was unable to withstand the fury of the men of Gwent, who levelled it with the ground, and the whole garrison left there by de Breos were either killed or taken prisoners; the fortress of Dingatstow near Monmouth, belonging to de Poer (at that time sheriff of Herefordshire) was reduced to a heap of ruins, and it is said, he himself with nine persons of wealth and power in the neighbourhood were driven by the assailants into the castle ditch and there slain. Upon the assassination of Trahaern, Gwenwynwyn prince of Powis,who was connected with the family of Trahaern by marriage, determined to avenge his death; he therefore with a strong army entered into Elvel in Rad- norshire and laid siege to Painscastle in that district, then the property of de Breos, - . vowing he would reduce to ashes the whole country from thence to Severn; a sa- crifice as he conceived too small to the manes of his butchered kinsman: the want of miners however and the insufficiency of his implements of attack, which were but ill adapted to the purpose, delayed his operations so long, that the besieged found time to solicit aid from England; being reinforced by a strong body of troops from thence and assisted by the united powers of the lords Marchers, their spirits were revived, though they at the same time proposed terms of ceommodation; these were rejected with disdain by Gwenwynwyn who renewed his former menaces. Policy now suggested to the English lords the enlargement of Griffith son of lord Rhys, who called himself prince of South Wales, and whom they knew to be an enemy to Gwenwynwyn: upon his release, he immediately collected together a number of his partizans, joined the English and marched to the assistance of the besieged garrison of Painscastle; a bloody engagement took place in which the prince of Powis was defeated. Mathew Paris says, this battle was fought before Maud's castle called by Camden the castle of Matilda in Colwen, and he tells us that three thousand seven hundred Welshmen fell in that combat. Thus escaped for a time the cruel and oppressive lord of Brecknock, but short lived was his triumph, . Raro antecedentem scelestum, . ~ - Deserit pede poena claudo. Hor. *- - But HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. 117. . But lame revenge still stalks behind, Still slowly dogs the guilty mind, And only waits to give the surer blow. Creech. Soon after this time, we shall see fortune entirely forsake him or only shewing her face transiently, to bring to painful recollection the days when she loaded him with her gifts; we shall see him a fugitive and a wanderer, banished from his country and possessions or only visiting them as an outlaw, under continual ap- prehensions and at the peril of his life; but before I come to this period, it is but justice to observe that he appears to have entertained something like sentiments of gratitude towards his sovereign Henry the second, as well as to his successor Richard the first; for Stowe informs us, that in 1202 he was taken prisoner by John King of England while supporting the right of Arthur the lawful heir to the crown; from this imprisonment, the usurper either from motives of pity or policy, soon released him, but he continued ever afterwards (perhaps not without reason) suspicious of him, though he loaded him with favours during the first four or five years of his reign; and upon the breaking out of the war between John and his barons, he demanded de Breos's sons as hostages for his fidelity. Upon this occa- sion his wife Maud de St. Walery, whom some of our chroniclers call a malapert woman, desired the king's messengers who made the application, to inform their master, that she would not trust her children to one who had murdered his own nephew: this answer, which was certainly more flippant than prudent, so enraged the king, that her husband was instantly banished the realm," and his property de- clared to be confiscated for the use of the crown, as Matthew Paris and all the English writers say: it no doubt contributed towards his disgrace, but letushearthe complaints of John, which as they never have been contradicted, there is no reason to disbelieve; they are contained in a letter or manifesto, making known to his . subjects “how ill William de Breosa had conducted himself;”—“ quam male se gesserat Willielmus de Breosa”. - - - - As the memorial is in fact a history of the latter years of this baron's life, I trust no apology is necessary for its insertion here nearly at length, or at least preserving the whole of its material contents. Thet first grievance recited by the king is, that "William owed him on his (John's) departure for Normandy five thousand marks for the province of Munster, demised to him by the crown, and for which he paid no rent for five years; he also owed five year's rent for the city of Limerick, of this sum he enly paid or accommodated the king with a hundred pounds at Rouen on account. As * Circa, 1209, ºf 14. Ino, A. D. 1212, tomi. ſo. 162. - 118 HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. { As to the debt due for Munster, several terms were assigned on which he was required to pay it, yet he neglected to attend to them, wherefore after five years neglect of payment, according to the custom of England and the law of the ex- chequer, it was resolved that his goods should be distrained until he made satis- faction for his debt to the crown; but the delinquent (having by some means obtained information of what was intended) caused all his property to be removed out of the way, so that no effects could be found upon which the distress could be made: orders were therefore sent to Gerard de Athis, the king's bailiff in Wales, that William's goods and chattels in Wales should be distrained ’till the debt was paid. Alarmed at this determination, his wife Maud de Haia, his nephew William earl Ferrars, Adam de Porter who married his sister, and many of his friends met the king at Gloucester and requested that William might be permitted to have an interview with his majesty, who coming to Hereford in the mean time received possession from de Breosa of his castles of Hay, Brecknock and Radnor, to be held by the crown unless the debt was paid on a day appointed by himself, and besides, as hostages for his punctuality, he delivered up to the king two sons of William de Breosa the younger, a son of Reginald de Breosa and four sons of his tenants, yet notwithstanding this, he paid no more attention to the present than to his former engagements; for in a little while afterwards, when Gerard de Athis commanded the constables of the castles surrendered by de Breos to the king, to collect the customary payment for the use of the crown, finding that the officers, to whom the care and custody of those forts had been committed were then absent, he came with William the younger, Reginald and their sons and a vast multitude of people, and laid siege to those three fortresses in one day and though he did not meet with the success he expected, yet he burnt one half of the town of Leominster, a cell belonging to the abbey of Reading held under the crown in free alms, and wounded and slew most of the king's ministers there. - When Gerard de Athis was informed of these proceedings, having collected to- gether as many of the king's subjects as the time would permit, he marched to the relief of the besieged places, whereupon William de Breos instantly retreated and fled into Ireland with his wife and family, where they were hospitably received by William Marshal and Walter de Laci, although both of them had been commanded on their allegiance not to entertain or maintain the enemies of the king of England, who might fly hither to avoid payment of the debts due to their sovereign; after- wards they sent to the king and undertook that William should appear before him OI! \ * “Praeter centum libr; quas nobis accommodaveratapud Rothomag,” # Adam de la Port of Herefordshire. We have Port-way now in that county. HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE, . I 19 on a certain day, to answer for his debt and the outrages he had committed, and in case of his neglecting so to do, they engaged to send him out of Ireland and never to receive him again ; yet neither he or they kept their word: it was now de- termined no longer to suffer these excesses with impunity, and the king having collected his army resolved to embark for Ireland to punish his rebellious subjects; but before his majesty could reach the place of his destination, William de Breos went to the king's bailiff in Ireland and petitioned for letters of safe conduct to enable him to make his peace with his lawful sovereign; these were granted on his being sworn to proceed without loss of time to meet the king, without any circuity in his route or turning out of his road, either to the right or left; yet when he ar- rived in England, as his family were then in Ireland, he immediately proceeded to Herefordshire and collected as many of the king's enemies as he could prevail upon to join his standard and to espouse his quarrel. When the king heard this in the course of his voyage, being then upon the Irish sea, he determined to come on shore at Pembroke; here he was again requested by de Breos's nephew, William earl Ferrars, that he might be permitted to go to speak to his uncle to know his intentions, this was likewise granted, and one Robert de Burgate, a knight of the household, directed to accompany him, who returning, begged leave that William might once more be suffered to approach the royal presence, which was allowed him; he then came as far as the water of Pembroke, and offered by his messengers forty thousand marks to be restored into peace and favour, “yet we (says John) knew full well that it was not in his power, but his wife's who was in Ireland, to satisfy the debt due to us, and therefore we sent to him to inform him, that we were now about to sail for Ireland, and that, if he was in earnest, we would ac- company and supply him with a safe conduct or passport for that kingdom, to enable him to talſ with his wife and friends about the amount of the fine he was to pay, and the ratification of the terms to be agreed upon; and we further undertook that if we could not agree upon those terms, we would send him to the same spot in Wales on which he then stood, and in the same condition:” these reasonable * proposals were rejected by de Breos, who remained in the principality, doing all the mischief he could to the king and his subjects, burning a mill and setting fire to three cottages. In the mean time Maud of Hay, hearing of the king's expedition to Ireland, fled to Scotland, where she was taken prisoner by Duncan de Carye whom the king calls his cousin and friend, and who immediately sent him information of this oc- - . w - 3. - - currence, * If John can be supposed to be sincere in this his character; such terms would hardly be offered proposal, there is in this part of his conduct more at this day by a justly offended sovereign to a re- generosity and liberality than we could expect from volted subject. *- gº 120 HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE, currence, which he received on the day the castle of Carrickfergus was surren- dered to him: Maud's eldest son William, his wife and two sons, and her daughter. (whose name was Maud) the wife of Roger Mortimer, were also made prisoners at: the same time, but Hugh de Laci and, Reginald de Breos her third son, made their escape. To conduct them into his presence, John sent two of his knights. John de Courci and Godfrey de Cracombe, with a company of bowmen, and when - they were brought before him. “ this very Maud (ipsa Matilda says John) began to talk about making us satisfaction, and offered us forty thousand marks for the safety. and preservation of the lives and limbs of her husband and his adherents, and that his castles might be restored to him; to this we agreed, yet in three days she re- pented of her engagement, alledging that she was unable to perform them: after- wards when we returned into England, we brought her and her family with us. in our custody, and now she again offered us forty thousand marks upon the same. conditions as formerly, and ten thousand marks as a fine for her departure from her first proposal; this we likewise consented to accept, but to convince her that she was to adhere more steadily to her undertakings in future, we told her, that as often as she receded from the present compact, she should pay an additional sum - of ten thousand marks;-to this she agreed, and the whole transaction was reduced into writing and confirmed and ratified by her oath and seal, and the oaths and seals of her party, as well as of our earls and barons who were present at the treaty, and days were at the same time assigned for the payment thereof; for the punctual performance of which she and hers were to remain in custody, until the whole debt was paid by instalments.” The king then proceeds to state, that after a' William de Breosa's breach of his engagements, when he entered Hereford- - shire and burnt and laid waste the country, he was proclaimed a traitor and an outlaw by the sheriff of Herefordshire, according to the law and custom of Eng- land; but that upon the faith of this compact with his wife, he (the king) wrote to that officer to postpone further proceedings against him till the monarch's return from Ireland: that upon his arrival in England, Maud and her family were pri- soners at Bristol, where she petitioned that her husband might have leave to speak to her in private, that he obtained this permission, that he approved of the terms his wife had made, and that in order to enable him to raise the money promised to be paid, Geoffrey Fitzpeter the king's justice was sent to accompany him, (a favor with which de Breosa would have readily dispensed, for upon the first in- stalment becoming due, he quitted the kingdom and left his majesty's justice in the lurch.) The rescript then concludes by saying, that upon being informed of this unexpected piece of intelligence, the king sent Geoffrey Fitzpeter, the king's -- . . . . . . . " brother *. HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE, | 9 | brother the earl of Salisbury, the earl of Winchester and other noblemen to Maud, to know from her what was to be done in this dilemma, and what she and her husband proposed in the business, and that she answered explicitly, she would not pay one farthing, as she had no more money or money's worth in her pos- Session than twenty four marks in silver, twenty four besants” and eleven ounces of gold; so that neither she or her husband or any person for them, ever paid the debt to the king, or any part of it. This writing is attested by William earl Ferrars, Henry earl of Hereford and several other noblemen, so that if this state- ment be true, of which (as has been before observed) there is little reason to doubt, king John was fully justified in his proceeding against William de Breos, indepen- dently of the malapertt speech of his wife Mol Walbee, which at the same time it is probable he neither forgot or forgave; and in revenge for this insult as well as her repeated breach of faith, he inhumanly inclosed her and her second son William in a tower at Windsor, or as some say Corfe castle, where they were starved tG death, while her husband was compelled to take refuge in France, and to submit to the loss of the whole of his property and possessions: in this country he sur- vived some time in the humiliating habit of a beggar, tormented by a wounded conscience and the miseries of poverty; and having in some measure expiated in this life, the crimes he had committed in his prosperous days, died at Gorboy, or Corboy! in Normandy, or rather in the Isle of France, on the 9th day of Augustt in the year 1212 or 1213, from whence his body was conveyed to Paris and honou- -rably interred in the abbey of St. Victor's there. & - It is not necessary to paint the character of this monster, his own actions have unequivocally pourtrayed it; but is it not extraordinary that such a man as Giral- - p - dus *Bisantia, Besants, or rather Byzants, from their for herinterference, and said, she talked like a fool- #aving been coined athyzantium during the time of the Christian emperors, were a gold coin of uncer- tain value. Besants are now only known in her- aldry and are represented by little balls or surfaces. - + The words of Maud, as related by Matthew Paris, are preceded by a sarcasm, which none but a monk would have made; “Maud his wife (says he) snatching the words out of his mouth, answered with a womaalike flippancy, I’ll not deliver my boys to your master king John, because he basely mur- dered his nephew Arthur, whom in honour, he ought to have preserved and protected; her hus- hand, (the author proceeds to say) reprehended her round yellow R. - - . ish woman, that he was ready to obey the king in all his lawful commands, yet that he did not see . . . the necessity of giving pledges for his fidelity.” Matthew Paris, Edn. of 1571. p. 303. Speed Says, Maud endeavoured to pacify the king; and to induce him to forgive her offence, she made a present to his queen of four hundred kine and one bull, all milk white with red ears. Bingley, in his animal biography, vol. 2. p. 80. describes wild cattle to be invariably white, the muzzle black and the whole inside of the ear, and one-third part of the outside from the tip downwards red. … : Matthew Paris. Stowe. 12% HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. dus Cambrensis should from any motives have been induced to become his pane. gyrist, or to prostitute his pen in his defence? Yet so it is, for he tells us, that “ though as a man he sometimes erred, for he who sins not has more of the divine than of human nature in him, yet he always prefaced his discourse with the name of the Lord; “in the name of God be this done, in God’s name* be that performed, if it please God, if it is the will of God, or by the grace of God it shall be so,” and if he was on a journey, whenever he came into a church or saw a cross, he immediately betook himself to prayers, even though he was engaged at the time in conversation with any person, whether rich or poor; and when he met children he always saluted them, hoping to be repaid by the prayers of innocents: his wife Maud (Giraldus also tells us) was not only chaste, but prudent and remarkable for her oeconomy and domestic good qualities. Butthough the archdeacon was a man of learning and knowledge of the world, he was a high churchman ; and the most me- ritorious service that could be rendered christianity or religion in those days was a liberal contribution towards the support of its ministers. Giraldus's respect for William de Breos may be more readily accounted for than commended, when we learn, that he was a considerable benefactor to the priories of Brecknock and Aber- gavenny, as well as to the monks of Lira in Normandy; to the first he granted tWO charters which are on record, by the former he gives his body to the church of St. John the apostle and evangelist in Brecknock, to be conveyed thither from whatever place it might please God he should die, whether in England or Wales, that being the church which beyond all others he reverenced, because upon St. John, after God and the holy Mary, he placed his greatest trust: he then confirms the charters of his predecessors, and recommends the church to the care of all those who owe him faith or friendship, and conjures them, by the love of God, to pro- mote its welfare with all things needful; he afterwards proceeds to grant to all persons belonging to the church of St. John, as well burgesses t as other, privileges and exemptions from all levies and contributions payable f to chief constables, and from * It is to be presumed that this grace preceded the chief constable, for the better support of his office; slaughter at Abergavenny, “In G–’s name let us cut the throats of these fellows peaceably and quietly.” . . . . . . . . + This is the first time we hear of burgesses of Brecknock; few boroughs in this kingdom can boast of equal antiquity, or trace their incorporation to as early a period. s: In the Latin, “liberisint scyris ethundredis.” This word hundredus was used not only for the hundred, or division now so called, but for the levies or contributions paid to the Hundredarius or from which some persons and religious houses (as in the present case) were exempted by grant. So king Henry the second to B. de S. Walleri, “ut terrae suæ sint guietae de Scyris ethundredis.” Secta Scyraruin aut hundredorum, signified suit of court or attendance on the county or hundred court. The tenants of abbies, monasteries and religious bodies, were not in general, liable to this suit of court, if the lands were held in Frank-Almoigne. Kennet. - - & HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. 125 from all fines for common trespasses * and defaults, and gives to the monks the goods and chattels of all persons t apprehended in the act of stealing, or who shall be convicted of any other crime, at the same time reserving to himself and the officers of his court the right of determining and pronouncing all judgments affecting life or limb. f . By the second charter he confirms to the same monks a certain demesne which Ralph de Bascheville gave them within his barony, called the mill of Trosalref * and its stream in levem: by reference to Baskerville's grant and his wife's confirma- tion, this will be found to be a mill called Trosdref Mill upon the river Llyfni Op. Lleveni. This confirmation seems to have been necessary at the time, as we find by a document in the Bodleian library, that a dispute arose, either between Ralph - Baskerville or his wife or widow the lady Nest: the daughter of Gryffyth, and the prior and monks of Brecon, concerning the profits of the mill of Trosdref upon Livini as it is called in Ralph's charter, which was compromised and the right of the prior and convent established. The scite of this mill is not now known, but it appears to have been part of the possessions of Bernard Newmarch, and after his decease of Milo Fitzwalter, from whom it descended to his grand-daughter Bertha, who married Adam de la Port, who had issue by her, Sibil the first wife of Sir Ralph Baskerville,S in whose right he became possessed of this property, as well as the manor of Eardisley in Herefordshire. * * * The honour|of Brecknock with its dependencies, together with Abergavenny . and the whole territory of Overwent, upon the attainder of the late baron de Breos, *In the Latin “de placitis et omnibus querelis;” quietos esse de querelis, sometimes meant to be ex- empt from the customary fees, payable to the king or lord of a court for leave to prosecute a plaint, but more frequently implied an exemption from fines for common trespasses and defaults, as in the grant to Barham de S. Valleri, “utterrae suæ sint quietae de omnibus placitis et querelis, excepto Murdredo et Latrocinio. Quatuor Hydas apud Cesterton liberas esse et quietas omnibus placitis et querelis excepto murdredo et latrocinio. Kennet. + There is clearly an omission here, and de Breos must have meant to have given the monks the goods of felons, taken and convicted within their Mišerties or jurisdiction. A right of the same kind, with some variation, will hereafter be found with the burgesses of Brecknock as late as the reign of Henry the eighth. ...” escheated : Carte's MSS. L. L. L. L. . . . § The Welsh pedigrees take no notice of this lady, though it is clear she was wife to Ralph B. as appears by the grant above referred to. || In antient times a baronial estate was distin- guished by the different names of Baronia, Honor, Terra; Faedum, and sometimes, though seldom, Tenementum. The baronial seigniory of an earl or other great man was commonly called an ho- nour, whether vested in the individual by for- feiture or otherwise in the crown. Thus the barony of Adam de la Port, the Terra of earl Simon; of the honour of Huntingdon and Gant; the Faedum of Wahull, the tenementum of se- veral barons, and the lordship of Brecknock is in- discriminately called Faedum and Honor; de scu- tagio Pictaviae, Faedum Willielmi de Braiosa. Madox's Baron: Anglic. p. 5 & 53. - R. 2. 124 HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE, . escheated to the crown; and shortly after, John gave Blänllyfni, Talgarth and the Wallascherie” to his favourite, but ill advising counsellor Fitzherbert, who was in- titled, next to the de Breos family, to the possessions of Milo Fitzwalter in Brecon- shire, in right of his mother Lucia one of the daughters of that earl. . The eldest surviving SOn of William de Breos was Giles bishop of Hereford, promoted to that see in the second year of the reign of John;f this prelate inherited all the violence and party spirit which marked the character of his detestable father, and upon all occasions stood forward in opposition to the crown; he was a zealous defender of the pontifical authority, and when the nation was put under an inter- dict, for what the pope was pleased to term the king's contumacy in refusing to acknowledge Stephen Langton as primate of Canterbury, upon his Holiness's consecration of him to that dignity, he was obliged to quit the kingdom to avoid the resentment of his incensed sovereign ; his revenues were confiscated and his sº person outlawed. He continued abroad till the year 1913, when upon his return into England he was restored to all his spiritual titles and possessions; but his lay inheritance was still detained from him: to recover this, he joined in a confederacy with Llewelyn prince of North Wales and some English revolted barons, and sent his brother Reginald to demand restitution of his castles in Wales and the marches from those who held them under the crown: such was the weakness of John's au- thority over the country at this time, that the castles of Abergavenny, Pencelli and Grosmont were instantly surrendered to Reginald without opposition, or (as far as can be now learned) the least shew or pretence of resistance; and when the bishop entered Wales in person, he obtained possession of Brecknock, Hay and Builth, where he was readily acknowledged as the rightful lord, and at the same time he expelled Fitzherbert and his dependants from the possession of Blänllyfni. Thus far he had succeeded, when by the express injunctions of the pope (who flattered by the mean concessions of the king, now fulminated a bull of excommu- nication against Llewelyn and his adherents) he thought himself compelled to. return to his allegiance, and having made a separate peace with the English mo- närch, his estate was by the royal mandate restored and confirmed to him. Stowe writes, that in the 1 5th king John, “ Gilo de Brawse the sonne of William de Brawse received all his father's inheritance into his custodie, together with his - nephew *. The lordship of Talgarth, like many others Welshmen Wallescheria, unde Wallashirie, the under the lords Marchers, was divided into En- Welshery or Welsh Talgarth. Talgarth first men- glish and Welsh, so called from two separate tioned above, means that part of the lordship courts held for the government of the people of where the English laws prevailed. - different nations and languages: that for the En- ºf A.D. 1200, glish was styled Englishcheria, the other for the HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. 125 nephew, till the child came of lawful age:” this nephew was John, nicknamed T adodie, son of his eldest brother William, generally called Gwilym Gam or squinting Will, whose melancholy fate has been recounted: this child had been privately nursed by a Flemish woman in Gower, and to him afterwards descended that lordship, together with the family estates in Sussex, and certain lands in Monmouthshire, part of which he gave to the abbey of Taley in Caermarthenshire as appears by Dugdale;” though the names by which they are described are so miserably spelt and disfigured that we can learn little more than that they were situate somewhere near Abergavenny: this branch of the family instead of verry, ermine and gules, three bars azure, born by the lords of Brecknock, assumed for arms, azure, a lion rampant, between ten cross crosslets, Or. f - - It is uncertain whether William de Breos the elder was not alive at the very time the bishop obtained possession of his estates; yet as these were forfeited to the Crown, no blame attaches to the latter either for claiming or accepting them, further than that it should seem, he ought to have accounted for the profits to his nephew, if he knew he was alive; but Giles was neither capable of enjoying, nor. had he merit to deserve such a vast accession of fortune; and though he cannot be charged with the atrocities that have perpetuated his father's infamy, it is doubtful whether the historian could have said thus much in his favor or allowed him even negative commendation, if providence had allotted him an equal length of days with his predecessor: he was evidently a fickle, proud and imperious baron, at the same time that he appears to have been an obedient son of the church; he gave certain lands in Colwall (perhaps Craswall) to the cathedral church of He- reford, but directed that the rents thereof should be applied to the celebration of his anniversary for ever, and died at Gloucester November 17, 1915, leaving his. immense possessions to his brother Reginald. On the north side of the choir of the cathedral at Hereford is the figure of a bishop pontifically habited, his right hand giving the benediction, in his left a crosier and an embattled tower of two, stories, on the wall over him is painted this inscription. 4. - Ds. Egidius de Bruse Epus. Heref, Obt. A. D. 1215. From the tower in his hand, bishop Godwyn conjectures, that he built the West: tower of that edifice, which fell to the ground in 1786, about five hundred and . eighty years after its erection; - - - - “But, * Mon. vol. 1. p. 466,467. - 126 HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE, - “ But all things have their end, Churches and cities which have disseases like to men, Must have like death that we have.” It has been seen how successfully the power of John (generally unfortunate) was hitherto exerted against the family of de Breos; this can only be accounted for by circumstances and facts not generally known to the public. Upon the murder of Trahaern Wychan by William de Breos, many of the family of the Welsh chieftain quitted the country and fled into England: those however who remained in Wales cherished and preserved an hereditary resentment against the assassin and his des- cendants. Trahaern left several brothers, one of them Cadivor ap Gwrgan ap Bleddin ap Maenarch had issue Meuric, whose son was Gwylym of Glyntawe in Brecknockshire, the father of Cradoc, generally called after the Welsh manner - Cradoc ap Gwylym: this Cradoc had very considerable possessions in the very centre of de Breos's property in this country; the quarrel therefore between J ohn and the lord of Brecknock fixed him firmly in the interest of the English monarch, to whom he adhered in all his wars with his barons, and who gave him for arms, as a reward for his fidelity, azure, a buck, tripping, argent, unguled and attired, and bearing between his horns an imperial crown, Or, which are born by most of his descendants at this day. To this internal enemy, this troublesome neighbour, aided as he was . by all the old inhabitants of Brecknockshire and the neighbouring counties, who combined to support the cause and to revenge the murder of one of the descendants of their antient reguli, may in a great measure be attributed the ruin of de Breos and the good fortune of John. The successors of this Cradoc sunk into country gentle- men, and though they may have occasionally distinguished themselves for their valour or their talents, yet after him they never shone as chieftains or appeared as commanders of armies. Cradoc either died in the latter end of the reign of J ohn, or else Reginald, who succeeded the bishop of Hereford in his wealth and territories, found means to be reconciled to him, or perhaps the additional weight which Regi- nald de Breos derived from his connexion with Llewelyn ap Iorwerth, prince of North Wales, whose daughter Gwladis he married, or all these causes contributed to his defence against the English monarch, and enabled him to resist his power with greater effect than his father; for during his government he will be seen com. bating the forces and resisting the attacks of John and his successor, with various success it is true, yet ultimately preserving his property; though frequently com- pelled to feel the weight, and to submit to the superior numbers of his adversary. - \ - Soon º º - º | º º |- | HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. 127 . Soon after he had been permitted to pay his homage, and had sworn fealty; Reginaldº engaged in a confederacy with Llewelyn and the English barons in resisting the power of his sovereign; who in the last year of his life gratified his revenge against his revolted subject, by marching into Wales and burning his castles of Hayt and Radnor. Upon the accession of Henry the third, overtures were made to him to detach him from the interest of Llewelyn and his adherents; and among other articles it was proposed, that as a reward for his obedience, his English estates should be restored to him, to be held on the same terms as his brother Giles: he was caught by the bait, and thus allured, he forgot his father in law; and regardless of the solemn engagements he had made with him, returned to England, when the . castles and honours of Totness, Barnstaple, and other escheated property, were delivered up to him by the commands of the English monarch. Llewelyn justly incensed at such a breach of faith, laid siege to the town of Brecknock; which in the first transports of his rage, he determined to demolish, but afterwards, upon the humble petition of the burgesses, and the earnest interces- sion of his nephew Rhys, he was prevailed upon to spare it, and having taken five hostages for their future good behaviour, and one hundred marks as a compensation to his troops for their march, he crossed the mountains towards Gower: in this journey he was so greatly incommoded by the badness of the roads and the natural difficulties of the country, that several of his carriages were injured, and some of them lost in bogs and morasses. Reginald, now ashamed of his conduct and alarmed for the safety of his Welsh possessions, came to Llanguik, (a parish in Glamorgan- shire, adjoining Brecknockshire, called by Powel, Llangruc) where his father in law was then encamped, and tendered him his submission, promising never again to offend him: Llewelyn with the generosity of a Briton, not only instantly forgave his former perfidy, but received him with all the mildness of paternal affection, and in the plenitude of confidence, put him into possession of the strong fortress of Caer- phili in the highlands of Glamorganshire; he then proceeded with his troops to Dyved, and concluded the campaign with equal honour to himself and advantage to his country. The reconciliation between Reginald and, Llewelyn was highly resented by the court of London, and in consequence of it, the lordships of Blān- Ilyfni and Talgarth, which since his brother's death, had been enjoyed by Reginald, were, by a royal mandate, retransferred to Peter Fitzherbert, to whom they had been given upon the attainder of William de Breos. * . . . - Nothing - - . - - * A.D. 1215. . . . - + Buck under his view of Hay castle in Brecknockshire (from what authority I know not) says, that Louis the dauphin of France burnt this fortress in the reign of John, but this appears to be an error. : A, D, 1217. . les HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE, Nothing fürther is known of the exploits of this baron; but we are informed that he died in 1998, and that he was buried in the priory church at Brecknock. Churchyarde” gives us the following account of his monument, or what he sup- posed to be such, . - “Cross legg'd by him t as was the auncient trade Debreos yes in picture as I troe - Of most hard wood, which wood as divers Say No worme can eat, nor tyme Can Weal’ away; A couching hound as harrolds: thought full meete, In wood likewise lyes beneath his feete.” Poor Churchyarde! Wert thou permitted once more to revisit “the glimpses of the moon,” thou would'st find that this most hard wood is so compleatly eaten by the worm, or worn away by time, that “like the baseless fabric of a vision, not a wreck remains,” nor does even the finger of Tradition point to the spot whereon this monument stood. - - In all probability Reginald employed the years that followed his reconcilation with Llewelyn, in a crusade or pilgrimage to Jerusalem; for Dugdale says, one of his charters to the monks of Brecknock was granted after his return from the holy land, which also accounts for the auncient trade of placing his legs across on his monument: by his first charter he granted to the monks just mentioned a Grist mill at Llanfaes with all the tolls and profits belonging to it, and he gave them the further liberty (if they should think it expedient) to remove it to any other situa- tion on the stream; he also granted them five shillings out of the revenues of the town of Brecknock, to purchase and provide a lamp $ for the honourable celebra- tion of the mass of the Virgin Mary daily, the same to be paid annually upon the festival of St. John the baptist. - - By : Heralds. In Normandy it was ordained that once in each year the priests and capellans should come with * Worthinesse of Wales, p. 72. f Waters, a family still remaining in Brecon. § The Latin word Luminare in the original signifies a lamp, a light or candle burning at the altar of any church or chappel, for the mainte- nance of which rent charges were frequently grant- ed to churches and religious houses. It was some- times stipulated that this luminary should burn all night and in the day at canonical hours dur- ing the time of divine service. A luminary at the great altar of the church was sometimes maintain- K. ed by the rector of the church, and in vicarages, the expence was charged on the appropriations. their people in full procession to their mother church, and there, every house offered on the altar a wax taper to enlighten the church. Bishop . Godwin passed a constitution in the diocese of Lincoln, against the abuse of rents given for this purpose. Kennet's parochial antiquities. This grant of de Breose, explains (as I conceive) the origin of Lady's rent or rather our Lady's rent now paid to the corporation of Brecon, By the second charter he merely confirms the grants of his ancestors: to both these charters Giraldus Cambrensis occurs as a witness. Gwladis the widow of Reginald de Breos afterwards married Ralph Mortimer lord of Melenydd in Radnorshire, who about the year 1242 built the castles of Knucklas and Cefallys in that coun ty; with her, Llewelyn gave the neighbouring territories of Cerri and Cedewyn as a marriage portion. Reginald by a former wife, Graecia or Grisseld daughter of William Bruere lord of Bridgewater, had issue, a daughter and two sons, named Mary, William and John: William, the eldest son, succeeded his father as lord of Brecknock, and as soon as he came into possession of his estate, discovered an attachment to the English interest, to which he steadily adhered during the whole of his life; he was little pleased with the *. second marriage of his father's widow, and contested her right to the jointure assigned her by her husband, but it does not appear that he was successful in his - opposition. War still raged in the marches; the king of England heading his own troops made vigorous efforts to conquer the principality, while on the other hand Llewelyn strained every nerve to maintain his independence: the English mo- narch, soon after his irruption into the borders, led his army into Cerri in Mont- gomeryshire, to a place there, called by Matthew Paris, Cridia, and by Sir William Dugdale, Cridie, a corruption (as it should seem) of Creigiau or Creigau, the Rocks; after having in his march thither compelled the Welsh to raise the siege of Montgomery, then held by Hubert de Burgh. At Cerri much time was spent in cutting a wood of vast extent, which had freqtiently protected the Welsh from the incursions of the English, and in the centre of which was a castellated mansi. on, or as others say, a religious house, serving as a place of security to the inha- - łitants in case of a sudden irruption, or unexpected attack from an enemy : this building was reduced to ashes, and as its scite was thought almost inaccessible, Henry by the advice, and with the assistance of de Burgh, laid the foundation of a castle on the spot where it stood; but Llewelyn, though hitherto repulsed, was very far from being subdued, nor was it his disposition to remain idle, while the enemy was incroaching upon his interior: with an eagle's eye, he watched the movements, and intercepted the convoys of the king of England, and sometimes cut in pieces his foraging parties: in one of these excursions (dum victualia quaereret, says Matthew Paris) it was the fate of William de Breos to be made prisoner by the Welsh, and though the whole territory of Builth was offered for his ransom, it was refused. Henry, awakened by these losses, and having some reason to suspect treachery among his officers, (who as it is said corresponded with the enemy, and made them . . . . . . . - - . acquainted S 130 HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. acquainted with his plans) at length thought proper to abandon the enterprize, and to leave the intended fortress, sarcastically called Hubert's Folly, unfinished. After three months fruitless waste of time and labour, and the loss of many men, during which period he had experienced nothing but mortification, he consented to a peace with Llewelyn, upon the disgraceful terms of levelling with the ground all the works he had constructed * and nearly compleated at an immense expence; the Welsh prince on his part engaging to pay him three thousand marks, as a compensation for the materials left on the spot, and consenting that in future the lord of Cerri should hold his territory as a fief of the crown of El gland. Henry was mean enough to make no stipulation in favour of his faithful servant de Breos, but suffered him to remain a prisoner with Llewelyn, who treated him as honou- rably and hospitably, as if he had been his invited guest: during this confinement he is said to have become enamoured of Joan the wife of Llewelyn, a natural daughter of John king of England, and to have been admitted to improper fami- liarities with her: this intrigue, it is added, remained a secret to Llewelyn until after the liberation of William, which was effected, as the Welsh chronicle says, by the surrender of the castle of Builth, and the payment of a large sum of money to Llewelyn, who being then informed of the infidelity of his wife, and determined to be revenged upon her gallant, invited him to a feast at his court; upon his ac- ceptance of this invitation, Llewelyn having him in his power, first reproached the profligate with his crime, and then commanded him to be ignominiously dragged out of his presence, and hanged” without further trial or ceremony, upon a tree growing upon a neighbouring hill; he was afterwards, as tradition says, buried in a field called from him, Cae Gwilym ddu, or black William's field, (the name by which this William de Breos was known among the Welsh) this inclosure is in the parish of Llandegai, in Caernarvonshire. Mr. Pennantt relates, that at the entrance into a deep glen, near Aber in Caernarvonshire, there is a very large artificial mount, flat at the top and near sixty feet in diameter, widening towards the base, on which was once a castle belonging to Llewelyn; some foundations (he says) are yet to be discovered near the summit, and in digging there, the vestiges of build- ings may be found; here, it is said, the intrigue was detected, and the tradition. of the country is, that a bard of the palace, accidentally meeting with the princess, who was ignorant of the fate of her paramour, thus impudently accosted her, “Diccyn, Doccyn, wraig Llewelyn ! | Hark'e dame! say what wilt thou Beth a roed' am gweled Gwilym * : Give to see thy Gwilym now ; :, #. Circa, 1230. † Tour in Wales, Vol. 2, p. 398, \ HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE, 181 To which this Englishwoman is supposed to have been such a fool, as to have answered flippantly and in tolerable Welsh rhyme, “Cymru Lloegra Llewelyn | Wales, England and Llewelyn too A rhown y gyd am gweled Gwilym.” I’d give my William's face to view. Upon receiving this answer, the bard, it is added, shewed her the body of her favourite suspended to the branch of a tree. - - - Such is the story as related by many historians and confirmed in some degree by tradition, but notwithstanding this, there are many reasons which render it liable to suspicion, and make its veracity extremely doubtful: in the first place Matthew Paris,” who is one of the earliest authors that assigns the jealousy of Llewelyn as the cause of de Breos's death, gives it as a report only, “ut dicebatur” are his words, and he afterwards informs us, that among the charges against Hubert de Burgh were, “stealing a precious stone from the king of England's treasury, which had the virtue of rendering the wearer of it invulnerable in battle, sending it to Llewelyn the king’s enemy, and treacherously writing letters to the same Lle- welyn, by which means the prince of Wales was induced to hang William de Breos as a common thief in the second place, she was (to use a common phrase) old enough to be de Breos's mother, she was married to Llewelyn in 1201 or the beginning o 1202, supposing her therefore to be only twenty years of age at that period, she must have been nearly fifty when William's captivity commenced: it must also be observed, that though the heroes of those days were not very delicate in their amours, it is extremely improbable that de Breos should have intrigued with the wife of his father's father in law, and that David ap Llewelyn, the son of the adulteress should have afterwards married Isabel, the daughter of his mother's seducer: it seems also extraordinary that a woman, accused tauntingly of a crime of this nature, should avow it, and avow it without hesitation, to one, who from the familiarity of his address evidently meant to insult her, and that in a language too, in which it cannot be supposed she was an adept, unless her facility of ac- quiring the knowledge of it, far exceeded that of her countrywomen of the present day, and lastly we are told, that her husband Llewelyn in honour of her memory, soon after her death, in the year 1236, erected the Franciscan monastery of Hillanfaes, in Anglesea, to enshrine her tomb,; so that upon the whole it may *. - - - fairly * P. 488. + M. Paris, p. 504. - Joan was a daughter of king John by Agatha, to Llewelyn, as a portion with her, the lordship of daughter to Robert earl Ferrers, fourth earl of Ellesmere in Shropshire. Sir John Wynne is ADerby of that name: the English monarch gave clearly wrong in asserting that she was legitimate, - - for -140 HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE, - fairly be concluded that if any thing was said about this familiarity between William de Breos and the Welsh princess, it was only meant to furnish a pretence for his death, which the tortuous policy of the times suggested, and to which, it is by no means improbable, Hubert de Burgh, from a personal quarrel, or to get rid of a troublesome neighbour, by falsehood or artifice contributed. - The imputation thrown upon the character of his sister, as well as the execution. of so powerful a baron as William de Breos, exasperated the king of England, and for a moment called forth the exertions of this weak and fickle monarch: with all the pride therefore of an insulted sovereign, though without the valour or the talents to obtain his object, Henry sent to Llewelyn a peremptory summons to ap- pear before him at Shrewsbury to answer for his unwarrantable conduct. Instead of obeying this mandate, the prince of North Wales entered the marches with an army, and extending his ven geance to the family and even to the tenants of the deceased, he laid waste the then defenceless territories of de Breos: having taken the castle of Montgomery,” still in the possession of de Burgh, who was left to. defend the marches of Wales, he proceeded to make himself master of Brecknock and Rhaiadrgwy, and afterconsiderable loss, reduced the church and castle ofCaerleon. * to ashes: the same fate attended the fortress of Neath and Cydweli; the barbari- ties which accompanied his progress, are highly disgraceful to his character, and tCO disgusting to be related. About two years afterwardst he made a second inroad into Breconshire, destroying and laying waste the whole of that country, at length however he was foiled in his attack upon the castle of Brecknock, which was either more ably defended or more strongly fortified than in his former expe- dition; for after a month's fruitless efforts he raised the siege, yet in order to leave a memento of his visit, he humanelſ set fire to the town and returned home- wards with his booty. - - The issue of William. de Breos by his wife Eve, daughter of William Marshall. earl of Pembroke, were five daughters; Isabel, the eldest, married David the son. of Llewelyn, Elinor, the second, married Humphrey de Bohun earl of Essex, • . . . - who for it appears by an instrument in Rymers (Fed. Tom. 1.) intitled “de remissione Leulino Wal- liae principi qui Joannam Regis filiam notham duxerat in uxorem,” that she was a natural daughter; that she was buried in Llanfaes, in Anglesea. is equally evident from another docu- ment, ſtom 9, p. 147) in the same book, intitled, “ pro fratribus Minorum de Llamayis in insula sostra de Anglesey,” where it is said, “conside- * * Powel, 251. *. - rantes quod in eadem domo, corpus tam filiae regis Johannis progenitoris nostri quam filiiſtegisl)acia, nec non corpora domini de Clyffort sepulta exis-. tunt.” Leland says she died at Haveringe in. Essex, and was buried at Tarrente nunnery, in Dorsetshire, but the stream of history, as well as the authentic document above referred to, has decidedly fixed the place of her interment in, Anglesea. . † A. D. 1233. \ HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE, 133. who in her right, as will be seen, succeeded to the lordship of Brecknock, Maud married Roger Mortimer earl of Wigmore and lord of Melenydd, son of Ralph lord of Wigmore by Gwladis dda, and after his death Brian de Brampton, Eve, the fourthr daughter married William de Cantelupe, and brought him the lordship of Aberga- venny, which by the marriage of his daughter Joan, descended to the family of Hastings, from whom it came to the Beauchamps earls of Warwick, and afterwards to Sir Edward Neville the ancestors of the present earls of Abergavenny,” and Ella the fifth daughter married according to some MSS. a John Mowbray. It must be recollected that upon the reconciliation of Reginald de Breos with Llewelyn, the lordships of Blanllyfni and Talgarth, including the honour and castle of Dinas, were seized upon by the crown, and given to Peter Fitzherbert, and though he was dispossessed of them by Reginald, he afterwards acquired a legal title to these possessions by marrying Isabel, the daughter of the last William de Breos, who survived her first husband David the son of Llewelyn prince of North Wales. Fitzherbert died in 1935, leaving the bulk of his fortune, among which was his Breconshire property to his eldest son by a former wife, Herbert Fitzpeter. This latter baron appears among the list of benefactors to the monks of Brecon : - he granted them in full, pure and perpetual alms the liberty of fishing in the lake of Llynsavaddan, three days in the week and every day in ent, with one boat. This was no new privilege, for they enjoyed this right in a far more ample manner under the first charter of Roger, earl of Hereford, indeed the present limitation to the use. of one boat, seems as if it was the intention of the grantor to narrow, rather than enlarge the benefits of the fishery. He granted them also the lands of Pentenavell, (Penllanafel) and all the lands of St. Paulinus, (Llangorse) which used to pay to - the said monks the yearly sum of one mark. By way of commutation, for the tythes. of his castle of Blänllyfni, he gave them five marks yearly, subjecting his bailiff to the penalty of excommunication if he neglected or delayed payment; he also granted, them a certain encroachment of land near Trewalkin, cleared and made profitable by. the said monks, but for which they had incurred the displeasure of his father. The remainder of the charter contains merely a confirmation of grants by other persons: of lands or hereditaments within his lordship: he died without issue in the thirty second of Henry the third, leaving his brother Reginald Fitzpeter his heir, who upon doing homage, had livery of his several estates in England and Wales, except- ing the manors of Blänllyfni and Dinas, which the king seized and gave to Waler- and de Teys. - - - * This lordship, as well as those of Kington, . Breos, as her dower, and were held by her till. Radnor, Knighton, Earlston, Totness and St. Clare her death, in 1246, - were assigned to Eva, the widow of William de - ſ 3 4 I - CHAPTER V+. From the Acquisition of the lordship by the Bohun Family, to the failure of that Race in the male line; during the accession by the Crown of England, and until the Possession of the lordship by the Stafford Family. .* - .* | TUMPHREY de BOHUN, who married one of the daughters of William de ill Breos, as has just been related, and who succeeded to the Welsh estates" upon the death of his widow Eve, was the sixth of that name after the conquest. This family was of high respect in Normandy, and as some say, related to our first William, whom they accompanied into England. Humphrey the third, by his marriage with Margaret daughter of Miles de Gloucester or Milo Fitzwalter, became in her right on failure of the male issue or rather on the decease of his brother in law without issue, (as has been already seen) earl of Hereford and lord high con- stable of England, an office of great honour and authority which descended through several generations of this family by the tenure of the manors of Haresfield, New- enham and Whittenhurst in Gloucestershire by grand Sergeanty. Camden says, that Caldecott castle in Monmouthshire was also held by them in virtue of that office, but this, Coxe denies, and says it was part of the property of the Bohun family. Humphrey Bohun, who married Eleanor or Elinor de Breos, was the son of Humphrey, earl of Hereford, surnamed the good; the father and son differed widely in their politics; in fact the father obtained this honourable distinction not only for the many virtues which marked his private character, but for his loyalty to the crown, while the son (with what justice I do not take upon me to say) was stigmatized with the epithet of rebel, for his adherence to the barons. it is not my intention, nor indeed is it consistent with my plan to enter into a detail of the convulsions which agitated the English nation, during the long and sanguinary reign of Henry the third: it will be sufficient here to observe that the All-wise Being “whose ways are past our finding out,” from great and apparent evils . * - and * A. D. 1246. t Tour in Monm. p. 19. - - } HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE, 136 and calamities, produced much real good, and laid the foundation offuture happiness. and rational freedom to the inhabitants of this highly favoured island. To the tur- bulence and ambition of some of the barons, and the patriotism of others, leagued as they were together, by motives so extremely different and by vi ews so compleatly opposite, we owe the preservation of Magna Charta, a grant which secured to the subject in those days many very valuable privileges, but which has since from time to time so far been exceeded in consequence of that love of freedom implanted by these early struggles in the breasts of Englishmen, by the attention of the legislature and sometimes by the liberality of the crown, that though the name of this docu- ment sounds melodiously in the ears of those who are ignorant even of its contents, the advantages we now derive from it are comparatively small. As the father of Humphrey was upon good terms with his sovereign during the whole or the greatest part of his life, there is no reason to attribute the resistance of the son to improper notives: so that unless Humphrey received some affront, or his tenants in Brecknockshire or elsewhere some injuries from the favourite D’Espencers whose power in Glamorganshire was very great, it may fairly be presumed that the weak and wicked councils of Henry may have alienated him from his cause, and - compelled him. to support the violated rights of his fellow subjects, as well as tº } . . protect his own from the gripe of a worthless monarch, and his insatiable minions. The first public notice we hear of this baron is in the twenty eighth of Henry the third, when in conjunction with the earl of Clare and other English noblemen, he was employed to quell, the insurrection of David the son of Llewelyn, his brother in law; a fierce engagement took place between them, in which it will hardly be lamented that the English were defeated, when it is known that de Bohun was himself the aggressor, by unjustly detaining from the British prince a third part of his wife's portion settled upon him by her father." In the following year he was employed with William de Cantelupe in scouring the Welsh marches from Breck- nock to Shrewsbury. Disputes ran now very high between the two nations, and wars continued with little intermission during the reigns of David and his nephew. Llewelyn ap Griffith; the latter having dispossessed Roger Mortimer of the castle of Builth and the lordship of Melenydd at length consented to a truce in consider- ation of their near relationship and permitted him to depart in peace: Llewelyn then passed on to Brecknock on the invitation (as it is said) of the inhabitants, received their voluntary submission and returned home into North Wales. In the insurrection of the earl of Leicester, Llewelyn and de Bohun acted in one common cause as partizans of Montfort, and committed dreadful ravages in the * A.D. 1244. # A. D. 1268. : A. D., 1263. * . * - - * 156 HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE, - marches upon the lands of such as adhered to the royal standard. Blanflyfni and Dinas, which upon the death of Peter Fitzherbert had been conferred on Walerand de Teys, now fell into the hands of Peter de Montfort. This Walerand in right of his wife, a daughter and heiress of Hugh de Kilpec in Herefordshire, held the bailiwick of Hay, of the town of Hereford, and the wood of Coedmore (or Coed mawr) for which, in the forty first of Henry the third, he paid a fine of three marks of gold; he also held a moiety of the demesne lands of Whatley, in the county of Somerset, granted him by the crown when he was governor of Bristol castle: these with all other his lands in Wiltshire and Dorsetshire and the Forestership of Hay Hereford, he afterwards made over to his nephew Alan Plugenet or Pogonet, constable of Dryslwyn castle in Caermarthenshire in 1987,” with a reservation of an annuity of one hundred and twenty pounds to himself for life. In 1267, upon a peace being concluded between Henry and Llewelyn,i the latter was allowed to retain Brecknock and Gwerthrynion, and the claims of the Bohunfamily seem at this time to have been overlooked by the king of England, though the old earl of Here- ford, his fast friend and adherent was still living. To Humphrey de Bohun the sixth of that name, the burgesses of Brecknock are indebted for their first charter of liberties and immunities now on record, though it is not improbable there may have been prior grants, which have been either lost or destroyed: he left only one son, a minor at the time of his death, the wardship of whom was committed by the crown to Gilbert earl of Gloucester, for though the father had offended, respect for his grandfather preserved the property from confis- cation, at the same time that little attention was paid to prevent its dismemberment whenever policy dictated a sacrifice of part of it to a troublesome enemy, but upon the arrival of our young lord at the age of manhood, the same motives induced ths English monarch to restore, or at least to permit him to recover his dominion of ** Brecknock. “A.D. 1971 (says Leland) young Humphrey fastnid, i.e. entryed on his land of Brecknock after the feast of St. Mark.” The explanation was perfectly superfluous and unnecessary, fastening is full as easily comprehended as entering | - *y, yaowena's - . § upon land, and is more descriptive of the manner in which the Norman lords + ºr seized # or became seized of their Welsh estates as well as of the uses to which they were applied, when they had them under their talons. F - - Upon - - * Faed. tom 2, p. 355. # Ibid. tom 1. p. 845. . . . - : Seisima, a Gall: Saiser idest apprehendore of taking possession of land. The men of Kent Spelman sub verb.--To seize, to fiv a grasp or afterwards appeared to give him livery, or to Sanc- power on any thing.—As to seize on Naboth's tion his rapacity, though in this case he certainly vineyard, Johnson's dict. William the conque- became seized of or seized this realm without a ror introduced the term, and accidentally this mode lawful consideration. At this day the law makers - §§& - - . - HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. - 137 Upon the death of Humphrey the good, who, according to York in his unio ef honour, was buried at Llantoni, near Gloucester,” Humphrey his grandson was admitted to the earldom of Hereford and Essex, and the constableshi p of England, which last office his grandfathert had resigned to him sometime previous to his death, and upon doing homage, he had livery of these honours. In the tenth of Edward the first, particular circumstances requiring his personal residence in Brecknock, he was allowed to depute his uncle John de Bohun to attend his sover- eign as constable of England. - Though neither the Welsh or English historians have recorded the inducements which led Humphrey de Bohun into Wales at this period, it is not difficult to account for the neeessity of his appearance in Brecknockshire, when we recollect the pos- ture of affairs there in the year 1281. A war had just commenced between Edward the first and Llewelyn, which the humanity of Peckham archbishop of Canterbury endeavoured to prevent; he even undertook a journey into Wales for that purpose, heard with patience and apparently without prejudice the complaints of Llewelyn, dictated in language, which would not disgrace the orators of any age or country, almost admitted the truth of his assertions and the force of his arguments, seemed to feel for the injuries of the prince and principality, and returned to England in expectation that they would be redressed, but the die was now thrown and the resolution of Edward irrevocably fixed. A wise and sound policy productive at the time (it is true) of calamities that may be deplored, and outrages which must be condemned, yet ultimately, tending to promote the peace and happiness of both countries, suggested to this enterprizing monarch the necessity of uniting Wales with England, and the hatred of a rival in arms, as well as in talents, though inferior in force, confirmed him in his determination, Llewelyn ap Griffith had frequently and indeed recently foiled him in his x, attempts to subjugate the rough natives of the barren mountains, and had formerly sent him bootless back to the fat pastures of England, if not with disgrace, at least with mortification and disappointment; but that persevering potentate, skilled as he was in every branch of military tactics then $nown in Europe or in Asia, returned to the charge, and deaf to the representations - - of wise of the phrase, and permits men to take quiet violence. The truth is, that the technical phrase, and peaceable possession of acres of land, wood, livery of seizin, though now well understood, is a water, &c. by fastening upon or grasping a twig or naturalized and antiquated solecism, while dis- turf, at the same time that it presumes a degree seizin assumes a fact generally, or at least fre- of force in one who takes that possession, even quently without foundation. - though he obtains it by artifice, unaccompanied by - * A.D. 1275. f Faed. tom. 2, p. 57. | Appendix to Powel's history of Wales. T 138 HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. of the ill-fated Llewelyn, sent the primate back with proposals so humiliating, that they were (as he of course concluded they would be) rejected with indignation; one of these proposals was, that the prince of Wales should desert his subjects and sub- mit to receive a pension of one thousand pounds a year in England; Llewelyn answered with great spirit, that if he were base enough to accept of it, such was the honest pride of his people, that they would not suffer him to enjoy it, or permit him to descend so far below his rank. Here the archbishop whose conduct hitherto. was so amiable, lost at once the high character he had acquired. Intimidated by the power or compelled by what perhaps he thought his duty to his sovereign, he not only condescended to convey terms which he knew to be unreasonable and only calculated to wound the feelings of an injured prince, but he absolutely (when they were not approved of) thought it necessary to employ the censures of the church and to send Llewelyn and all his adherents to the Devil, for what he called their invincible obstinacy. - - • Both sides now prepared for war; the first efforts of the Welsh prince were suc- cessful: a considerable body of the English having crossed the strait or narrow channel between Anglesea and Caernarvonshire were cut to pieces, and Llewelyn overran Caerdiganshire and a great part of Caermarthenshire; but the fortitude, the perseverance, the talents and the forces of Edward, where he commanded in person, were irresistible; “his banners were fann’d by the crimson wing of conquest wher- ever they waved;” a retreat therefore to the almost inaccessible heights and fastnesses of Snowdon was the only expedient left to the Britons for avoiding present death or future slavery. This was adopted, and Llewelyn might have remained sometime secure from attack, unless his supply of provisions was inter- cepted; of this disaster he seems to have been apprehensive, and in order therefore if possible to prevent it and to distract the attention of Edward, who was at Conway, he marched with a small body of men to Montgomery, and from thence into Rad- norshire, where, as well as in Brecknockshire, he had a considerable number of friends, for he was the idol of his countrymen, or as an old chronicle describes him, “het was the captayne, the prayse, the law and the light of nations.” The corres- - pondence he held in this part of the country, was by some means or other made known to the English court, and it was to discover his intrigues and to counteract } his designs, as well as to fasten upon his lordship of Brecknock, that Humphrey de Bohun was now sent down into this country: unfortunately for the prince of Wales he was too successful in both the objects of his mission. Llewelyn's friends were either intimidated or persuaded to desert him, his enemies were encouraged and a - - considerable * Gray. + Polychronic, - HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. 139 considerable force raised to oppose him. Since the death of the last William de Breos, his widow and son in law possessed little more than a nominal dominion over this country: the descendants of the Norman knights preserved an attachment to the family of their seignior or lord paramount, but we have just seen the Welsh inhabitants of the town of Brecknock itself, the seat of his government, lately sub- mit voluntarily to their favorite hero, and native chief; while Humphrey de Bohun the father of the present Humphrey, involved as he was during the whole course of his life in continual troubles and perpetual skirmishes and warfare, had neither power or leisure to enforce the obedience of his tenants in the principality; but the case was now widely different; aided by the name and authority of the king of England, the arms or the arguments of Humphrey, the son, prevailed with his dependants, and made even an appearance or attempt at resistance, folly. This compleat change in the government and politics of the country, effected with much secrecy, as well as expedition, was perhaps not perfectly known to Llewelyn; led by the promises and flattered with the hopes of assistance held out to him by some men of power in the hundred of Builth and the neighbourhood, he ventured to march with his little army to Aberedwy in Radnorshire, three miles below Builth, on the banks of the river Wye, where it is said he expected to have held a conference with some of his friends, here however he found himself fatally disappointed, for instead of allies and partizans, whom he was encouraged to look for, he perceived he was almost surrounded in the toils and trammels of his adversary, A superior force from Herefordshire having had notice of his route, from some of the inhabitants of this country, approached under the command of Edmund Mortimer and John Giffard. Llewelyn finding from their numbers that resistance would be vain, fled with his men to Builth, and in order to deceive the enemy, as there was then snow upon the ground, he is said to have caused his horse's shoes to be reversed, but even this stratagem was discovered to them by a smith at Aberedwy, whose name • as tradition says, was Madoc goch min mawr, or red haired wide mouthed Madoc. He arrived at the bridge over the Wye, time enough to pass and break it down, , . before his pursuers could come up with him; here therefore they were compleatly - thrown out, as there was no other bridge over the Wye at that time, nearer than Bredwardine, thirty miles below. Thus foil'd and disappointed of their prize for the present, the English immediately returned downwards to a ford known to some of the party, about eight miles below, near a ferry called Caban Twm Bach, or little Tom's ferry boat; in the interim, it should seem Llewelyn must have gained sufficient time to have distanced his fol- lowers T 9 - # 40 HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. lowers, if he had made the best use of it, but he had not yet abandoned the expec- tation of meeting with assistance, and some hours may have been employed with the garrison of the castle of Builth, who awed by the approach of Mortimer, refused to treat with or support him. Stowe says”, “he was taken at Buelth castle, where using reproachful words against the Englishmen, Sir Roger le Strange ran upon him and cut off his head, leaving his dead body on the ground.” It is by no means improbable that he should have accused the garrison of Builth and the inhabitants of that country of perfidy, and (as Stowe says) used reproachful words towards the English, he may also have bestowed upon the men of Aberedwy, t as well as of Builth, that epithet which has stuck by them ever since, but he certainly was not slain at Builth castle, or by Sir Roger le Strange, for being here repulsed by those from whom he expected support and baffled in his attempts to reduce them to obe. dience, he proceeded Westward up the vale of Irvon on the Southern side, for about three miles, where he crossed the river a little above Llanynis church. over a bridge called Ponty coed, or the bridge of the wood, either with an intention of returning into North Wales through Llanganten, Llanavan fawr, Llanwrthwh, and from thence into Montgomeryshire, or perhaps of joining his friends in Caermarthenshire and Pembrokeshire, to oppose whom Oliver de Dyneham had been sent by the directions of the king of England, as appears by his letter from Rhuddlan:$this passage once secured, he stationed the few troops who accompanied him on the Northern side of the river, where, from the ground being more precipitous and much higher than the opposite bank, and at the same time covered with wood, a handful of men were able to defend the bridge against a more numerous enemy: in this situation he preserved a communication with the whole of Brecknockshire, and as he supposed the river was at this season | of the year impassable, he waited with confidence and security, while he commanded the pass, in hopes to hear further from his correspon- dents, or in expectation of being reinforced from the Westward; by this means the English forces gained sufficient time to come up with him, and appearing on the Southern side of the Irvon, made a fruitless attempt to gain the bridge: here they probably would have been compelled to have abandoned the pursuit, or at least Llewelyn might have escaped in safety to the mountains of Snowdon, if a knight : . - Of - • , * * P. 203, edition of 1631. + Bradwyr Aberedwy, Bradwyr Buallt. Traitors of Aberedwy, traitors of Builth. *~. - § Faed Tom. 2, p. 22. | It is clear from the snow, as well as from fought on the 10th of December, and Carte, in his ‘Edward's letter, dated 12th November, 1282, that history of England, quoting the chronicle of Duº- the circumstance I am relating passed in the depth stable, asserts that the Welsh lost two thousanā; of winter. Polydore Virgil says, this battle was me in this engagement. Sed. 9. HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHHRE. - 141 of the name of Sir Elias Walwyn (a descendant of Sir Phillip Walwyn of Hay) had not discovered a ford at some little distance, where a detachment of the English crossed the river and coming unexpectedly upon the backs of the Welsh at the bridge, they were immediately routed, and either in the pursuit or while he was watching the motions of the main body of the enemy, who were still on the other side of the river, he was attacked in a small dell about two hundred yards below the scene of action, from him called Cwm Llewelyn, or Llewelyn's dingle, and slain unarmed (as some say) by one Adam de Francton, who plunged a spear into his body, and immediately joined his countrymen in pursuit of the flying enemy; of this Adam de Francton, or perhaps Adam de Frampton, we have no account in history, nor is it known what rank he held in the English army, but it appears by Gough's sepulchral monuments, vol. 1. p. 88 and 89, that forty three years after this transaction a person of that name was buried at Wyburton church, between Boston and Frampton in Lincolnshire: his tomb has the figure of a man and woman cut in strokes upon it, and underneath, the following arms and inscriptions in characters of the time, Chi Gist Sibila La Femme Adam De Franton Ki Trespassa L. An De Grace MCCC Chi Gist Adam De Franton Ki Trespassa En ^*. L' An De Grace MCCCXXV Le XXVIII Yme Jour- De Decembre Prietz Pours' Alme * In all probability this man of Wyburton was the slayer of Llewelyn, especially as - the first shield is not unlike that of the Mortimers, under whom he served ; be this . as it may, when Francton returned after the engagement in hopes of plunder, he perceived that the person whom he had wounded, (for he was still alive) was the . . . - - prince * The inscription is given in Gough in the old explanation is not only incorrect in the spelling, letters, which are all capitals and perfectly legi- but it has omitted some of the words in the oria, ble, but it is very extraordinary that the copier's ginal, - - & . - – . . . . . - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - .* - - - - - -- - - - - - - 142 HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. prince of Wales, and on stripping him, a letter in cypher and his privy seal were found concealed about him: the Englishman, delighted with the discovery, imme- diately cut off his head, and sent it (as the most acceptable present that could be conveyed) to the king of England: the body of the unfortunate prince was dragged by the soldiers to a little distance where the two roads from Builth now divide, one leading to Llanafan and the other to Llangammarch; here they buried him, and this spot has been ever since known by the name of Cefn”y bedd or Cefn bedd Llewelyn, the ridge of Llewelyn's grave; a copy of the letter found upon him, was soon after- wards sent by Edmund Mortimer to the archbishop of Canterbury, who was then at Pembridget in Herefordshire, to be forwarded to the king: the primate in the course of conveying this transcript to his majesty, adds such further intelligence as had reached him, from which it appears, that dame Matilda Longspee had interfered upon hearing of Llewelyn's death, intreating he might be absolved from the sentence of excommunication, and his body buried in a consecrated place; this request Morti- mer with the gallantry of a soldier and the affection of a relation, (though that kinsman was an enemy) warmly seconded, by stating an assurance he received from those who were present when Llewelyn expired, that before his death he called for a priest, and that a white monk, who happened to be near, chaunted mass to him previous to his dissolution. . - . . . . Maud or Matilda Longspee countess of Salisbury, who thus kindly endeavoured to procure for the corpse of Llewelyn the rites of sepulture, and who married for her first husband William Longspee, the second earl of that name, was the only daughter and heiress of Walter de Clifford: governor of the castles of Carmarthen and Cardigan, by his second wife Margaret daughter of Llewelyn ap Jorwerth, aunt to the deceased prince. Maud lived sometimes at Clifford castle in Hereford- w shire, and at other times at Bronllys in Brecknockshire; she married secondly Sir John Giffard of Brimsfield in Gloucestershire, who in her right became seized of these possessions, and who was so situated that notwithstanding this family con- & nexion of his wife's, he was compelled by his allegiance to his sovereign to become one of the leaders of the English troops by whom Llewelyn was defeated and slain. No attention was paid to the request of Maud or the recommendation of Mortimer, and the remains of Llewelyn instead of being bones of contention among the & * Cefn is the ridge or summit of a gently rising, bant, he spells in the common way, substit and not very high hill. Owen, in his dictionary, (as his plan is) the o for the f. writes this word singularly, (as I conceive) f “Pembrugg,” Faedera, tom 2, p. 224. “Cevyn,” though all the derivations or com- Warrington erroneously translates this Pembroke- pound words formed from it, as Cefndwn, Cefn- shire. . * * : Edm. Bar. Gen. p. 564. Dugd. Bar. v. 1, p. 337, *4 uting - HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE, 143 the loyal inhabitants of York and Winchester (as his brother David's" afterwards became) were permitted to rot at Cefn-y-beddin unhallowed ground. - Those who have attentively read the history of Llewelyn (of whatever country they may be) will I trust lament the fate, and sigh while they contemplate the fall of the last and greatest of the Welsh princes: his grandfather Llewelyn ap Jorwerth had courage and considerable talents, but he was Savage in manners, variable in politics, fickle in his attachments and brutal in his revenge: during the greatest part of his life he had a mere driveller to oppose, but the last Llewelyn had to contend with an Alexander, supported by superior numbers and revenues; in short he had all the virtues of his ancestor with scarcely any of his vices, he had infinitely more difficulties to encounter, and when he was favoured with the . smiles of fortune he owed them entirely to his own merit and exertions. t. To return to Bohun. In the 14th year of Edward the first, he was with the king's army in Wales, and received scutage of all his tenants : his late guardian the earl of Gloucester was now possessed of the neighbouring lordship of Glamorgan, but certain untoward circumstances had destroyed all intercourse between them; Carte thus relates the story, “Gilbert earl of Gloucester had lately erected a castlefon the frontiers of Glamorgan, but situated in the county of Brecknock, upon lands belonging to Bohun, who complained of the injury in the king's court; Edward had reserved the cognizance of the cause to himself, and in the mean time forbad both to prosecute the quarrel by hostilities, or to disturb the peace of the country; this prohibition however did not prevent. Gilbert's bailiffs and vassals from invading by his direction, and with his banner displayed the territo- ries of Humphrey, burning houses, killing several persons, carrying off cattle, and - - • – committing * Warrington informs us, upon the authority of historians who have written upon these transactions. the annals of Waverley, that when David ap Griffith's quarters were condemned by the sen- tence of the courtiers of Edward the first at Shrewsbury, to be placed in different parts of the kingdom, the cities of York and Winchester contended with a savage eagerness for the right shoulder of this unfortunate prince, and that that honour was decided in favour of Winchester 1. Can this possibly be true : (as far at least as I have been able to collect them) as well as from tradition and a survey of the sup- posed scene of action, I have endeavoured to give as accurate a relation as it was in my power, and I hope I have reconciled the differences between them, without imputing any flagrant error or mis- take to any of them where it could be avoided. * Warrington has given a faulty translation of a very + The death of this prince is described in so confused and unintelligible a manner by different authors, that those who know the country are more at a loss to comprehend the circumstances attending it than even strangers. From an atten- tive perusal of all the accounts related by all the J extravagant ode on the death of this prince, which those who think in Welsh, as they do in English haps admire. # Marlais castle near Merthyr Tidvil, (as I appre- hend) this is now in Glamorganshire, but within a stone's throw of Breconshire. - - who prefer Chaucer to Pope or Dryden, will per- 144 HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. . committing several other depredations. These enormities were perpetrated in the months of February, June and December in the last mentioned year. The Gla- morganshire men animated by impunity made afterwards frequent incursions into Breconshire, plundering wherever they marched, and to add sacrilege to their other crimes not sparing even the churches. Humphrey’s vassals had hitherto been passive, but his bailiffs raising them on one of these last occasions followed the robbers into Gilbert's territories, slew some of them and rescued their own cattle, they carried off likewise some of the people of the latter, and were received by their own lord with their booty, who ordered it to be detained until satisfaction had been made for the injuries his tenants had sustained. The king resolving to put an end to such hostilities between his subjects, to maintain peace and order in every part of his kingdom, and to punish those who had insulted his authority and disobeyed his injunctions, issued a special commission for inquiring into the facts; which were found by a jury indifferent to both parties (being in- habitants of the neighbouring counties) to have passed as here related. The inquest being returned to the king on the 10th of September, (being the day after his mother's funeral) sitting in his council at Ambresbury, he called upon the two earls to answer for their contempt of his inhibition; Gloucester endeavoured to excuse himself by the custom of the marches and other trifling and insufficient pre- tences; Humphrey, though perhaps not strictlyjustifiable, was certainly less to blame - than his opponent, the king however hearing that he too had ventured to disturb the peace of the country against his express command, soon afterwards ordered another inquest, returnable before himself and council in three weeks after michaelmas, to inquire into disorders committed since the former verdict, by which Gloucester alone had been found guilty, but now it appeared that Hereford had consented to his vassals' depredations, by encouraging them to retaliate upon the men of Gla- morganshire, and receiving and detaining the cattle they had taken from thence: he was likewise taken into custody, and the liberties of both seized into the king's 3. hands, this being the ordinary and legal punishment in such cases, for when it was not easy to discover or come at the vassal, the lord of the liberty was responsible for his offence, yet they were both dismissed upon giving bail for their appearance upon the seventeenth of January then next, at Westminster, and 'till then their liberties were replevied, when the king's court, consisting of the archbishops, bishops, earls, barons and others of his council had considered the case, they abated something of the rigour of the law, (by which their regalities and franchises would have been forfeited for ever) to the earl of Gloucester for the sake of his wife and her issue, who were innocent of the offence, and to the earl of Hereford, because ^. - he - *~ HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE, 14.5 he was less guilty than the other, having received considerable provocation from him; they adjudged (the king pronouncing sentence) that the liberties of Glamor- gan and Brecknock should be forfeited for their respective lives, and both their persons taken into custody, to remain in prison till ransomed at the king's pleasure: Brecknock was committed in trust to Roger de Burghull or Burchill, probably a descendant of Bernard Newmarch's Sir Humphrey Burchill, though I do not find his name in the family pedigree. In this situation they were not continued long before they were permitted to compound with the crown, Hereford, for one thousand, Gloucester for ten thousand marks, when upon giving security for the payment of the money, they were restored to liberty and the possession of their estates. This Humphrey, in his political character, was a zealous partizan in the cause of liberty, steady in his opposition to the encroachments of royal prerogative and strenuous in asserting the constitutional rights and privileges of the subject: several instances of his undaunted spirit are recorded in the history of the times: when ordered by the king to accompany the earl Marshal to the continent, they both resisted, insisting upon their privileges, and saying that if his majesty went thither in person, they were ready to attend him, but otherwise by the nature of their services they were exempt from obedience to such a command: the language of the earl Marshal is said to have been indecently warm On the occasion: upon the king's . threatening them for their contempt of his authority, they withdrew from court and took up arms, and such was now the situation of the kingdom, that his majesty thought it more prudent to submit to the affront than to persevere in insisting on their obedience; here we see the same nobleman, who a little while back was com- pelled to throw himself entirely at the mercy of his sovereign, set the same monarch at defiance, and resist his orders with impunity; but the power of the crown varied in these days with the circumstances of the times, and even the great statesman and legislator Edward was occasionally compelled to bow to them, and relax from his severity. At another period we find de Bohun leagued with other mal-contents prohibiting the lord treasurer and barons of the exchequer from levying that tax of the eighth penny upon the people, which the parliament of Edmundsbury had granted to the crown, and openly inviting the Londoners to join him in the reco- very of their liberties: for this he was suspended from his office of high con- , stable. . . . . - - - . . . . . . . During the king's absence in Flanders, prince Edward, then left regent of public affairs, summoned him and the earl Marshal to attend their duty in parliament; they came (it is true) but they were attended by five hundred horse and a large body 146 HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. of infantry, and they even refused to enter the city unless their own men were allowed to keep the gates; neither would they agree to anything there proposed, unless the king would confirm the great charter and the charter of the forest with some additional articles, that no subsidies should from thence forward be exacted * from the clergy or laity, but by consent of the lords, and finally that themselves and all others concerned with him, who had refused to go into Flanders should be freely pardoned; humiliating to royal dignity, as all these concessions were, Edward was once more necessitated to comply with, and perform them. This Humphrey de Bohun appears upon the list of benefactors to the monks of Brecknock, to whom he confirms all the grants of his predecessors. By charter, dated at Chatley, A. E. 1, he renewed and considerably augmented the privileges of the burgesses of Brecknock, expressly endowing them with liberties and im- munities, in the same large and ample manner as he had before granted to the city of Hereford; he died at Plessy in 1298, and was buried at Saint Mary's chapel at Walden in Essex: upon this event one of our historians observes, that “England in him lost one of the best friends, as Edward did one of the severest checks either had ever known.” The lordships of Blänllyfni and Dinas were now possessed by John, the son of Reginald Fitzpeter, who was summoned to parliament from the twenty second to the end of this reign, and in the first of king Edward the Second, by the title of lord Fitzreginald of Blanllyfni, and Roger Mortimer was styled baron of Penkelly: they both appear upon the list of those patriots mentioned by doctor Howel, who withstood the Papal usurpation when he claimed Scotland from king Edward the first. . . . . . Their spirited memorial is recorded in the parliamentary register; † John Fitz- reginald was a benefactor to the monks of Brecknock and Llanthony. in the ninth of Edward the first, John Giffard obtained a charter for free warren within his lordship of Bronllys, which, as has been before observed, he held jure wa'oris, in 1287 we find him constable of the castle of Builth, which he held under the crown of England, and during this reign he was created lord Giffard of Brimsfield in the county of Gloucester: he died in the year 1995 possessed of the castle and manor of Bronllys and the manor of Glazbury: the last heir male of this house died in 1322, and the barony has been since claimed by the Talbot and Howard families. Wonderful are the turns and ehanges which the pages of history unfold! strange are the revolutions which courtly interest has power to effect! We have just seen the independent Humphrey boldly withstanding the despotie views of Edward, and with a patriot spirit defending the liberties of the subject, and now we are to behold . - the # A. D. 1301. + Vol. 1, p. 121, &c. : Faedera, tom 2, p. 385. | . º HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. 147 the eldest son of that very lord by way of atonement for his father's conduct, sur- rendering the inheritance of all his lands with the earldoms of Hereford and Essex, - together with the constableship of England, into the hands of the crown, and shortly after marrying the daughter of that prince whose power the elder Humphrey had so frequently resisted with success: this last circumstance, whatever disgrace it may throw upon his principles, may perhaps account for the different conduct of the father and son. The wife of the latter was Elizabeth, seventh daughter of Edward: the first, by Eleanor his first wife: at the early age of fourteen she was married to John, earl of Holland and Zealand, and lord of Friezeland, with the noble dower of eight thousand pounds per annum; this lord dying without issue, she took for her second husband the earl of Hereford: upon this event the king restored to him all his titles and estates, reserving however to the crown in case he should leave no. male issue, the reversion of the greatest part of the English property, together with the constableship, and providing that the estates in Bucks, Wilts, Gloucestershire, Huntingdon in Herefordshire, as well as those in Wales, namely Brecknock, Hay and Caldecot, and Newton in the marches, should descend to the heirs at law of Bohun. - By charter, dated at Brecknock, on Good Friday the first of Edward the second, this lord renewed and confirmed the privileges of that borough, to which he was very liberal, and where his memory was for ages so long respected, that Hugh. Thomas dignifies him with the epithet of noble. Whatever his conduct might have been to his dependants and tenants, it is clear that his submission to Edward the first was either per force or dictated by policy, it is indeed more than probable that it. may be attributed to both ; in the first place, his father's death had weakened the powers of his faction or party, and the earl Marshal conscious of his loss, and know- ing the resolute, though generous disposition of the king, had thought proper to temporize and resign not only his office, but nearly the whole of his estate to the crown: Edward satisfied with having humbled his haughty spirit, graciously - regranted him the greater part with the honours for his life, which he quietly enjoyed for the short remainder of it: actuated by the same principle and knowing that all opposition would be vain, the lord of Brecknock thought it most prudent to follow the example set before him: his submission was certainly much facilitated, and his reconciliation with the sovereign, rendered more palatable by the flattering prospect. held out to him in the projected union with his daughter: the event has been related and his allegiance was secured for the present reign, but no sooner had the death of the first Edward placed a new monarch on the throne, (although that mon- arch was his brother in law) than the opposing and restless spirit of the Bohuns - - - . . . . - - . ." again. U 2. 148 HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE, again became conspicuous: the unhappy partiality which the weak and youthful Edward manifested towards the stranger Gaveston, soon roused the jealousy of all the old mobility of England, and to such a height did they carry their resentment, that many of them refused to grace his majesty's coronation with their presence, until he had consented to the banishment of that obnoxious favourite. To appease the barons, the king seemingly acquiesced and made a promise which he was de- termined to evade in the moment he was giving it; of this the lords were soon made sensible, but it only served to render them more violent, they even came armed to parliament, and having bound themselves by an oath not to desist from their prosecution of Gaveston till they had deprived him of the earldom of Corn- wall, to which he had lately been advanced, and compelled him to quit the realm, they in a still louder and more authoritative tone, demanded his banishment. * The principals among these mal-contents were the earls of Lancaster, Warwick, Pembroke and Hereford. In the mean time the whole nation was in a distracted, state, and a civil war was seriously apprehended. It is irrelevant and indeed un- necessary here to pursue the subject through all the particulars of the baron's violence, the monarch's weakness, and the insolence of Gaveston; those who have read the history of England are well acquainted with the event; the latter fell a sacrifice to the unceasing vengeance of his enemies, and the former were sufficiently, powerful to extort a pardon from their misguided and infatuated sovereign. - While England was thus weakened by intestine faction, and the wretched in- decision of a feeble head, theScoteh were daily gaining strength under the judicious auspices of a brave and able leader. The gallant Robert Bruce had already pos- sessed himself of the greater part of Scotland, and even laid the English Marches under contribution, when the lethargy of Edward was at length awakened to a sense of danger, and he seemed to feel the necessity of arming to preventhis further progress. The military tenants of the crown were now called upon for their res- pective levies, and the king marched against the enemy at the head of one hundred thousand men; upon this occasion the lordship of Brecknocki was charged with a levy of eight hundred men Elvel and Builth raised two hundred, and the whole of Wales and the Marches six thousand one hundred, being nearly twelve hundred more than were furnished by twelve English counties, in which number is included the extensive county of York. ; In the great battle of Bannock-Bourn, the earl of *. - - - Hereford • * , * A.D. 1808. # Rymer's Faed. tom 3, p. 157, 158. # I suspect some mistake here: it is highly improbable that Brecknock, and even if Huntingdon and the Marches were added to it, could raise so large a force as eight hundred men in those days, 5 A.D. 1314. HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. I.49 Hereford was taken prisoner, and Henry de Bohun (undoubtedly a relation, per- haps his uncle) was slain in single combat by Bruce. It is said that Edward was not very anxious to obtain the release of his brother in law, but the earl of Lan- caster and his faction made such a point of it that they absolutely withheld the necessary supplies from government, till they had effected it; the wife of Bruce therefore, and other Scotch prisoners of Rank were exchanged for de Bohun and his adherents. - “In the same year (says Dugdale *from an old MS. in the possession of the earl of Elgin) Humphrey de Bohun had a grant from the king of the castle of Buelief in Ireland, in which year he entertained Sir Peter de Ouvedale (now written Uvedale) knight, by indenture to serve him during life, and to receive livery of robes, as his other batchelors, as also bouchef of court with hay and oats for four horses, and wages for four groomes in time of peace, whensoever he should come to court by his command; but in times of warre and for Tourney, § hay and oats for eight horses, and wages for eight groomes with satisfaction for such horses and arms as he should lose in the war.” This custom of coming to court armed and fol- lowed by a numerous retinue in the same livery, or wearing cloaths of the same colour, became so dangerous to the state, that in a subsequent reign it was found necessary to enact laws to prevent it. - - In the year 1815 the earl of Hereford and all the lords of the Marches raised their followers, and William de Montacute was sent by the king with a body of forces to suppress a formidable rebellion excited in Glamorganshire by one Llewelyn Bren (so Walsingham calls him) who had surprized the governor and taken the castle of Caerphili. This person (whom I do not find noticed by any Welsh writer) is said by Carte to have held a lucrative employment under the late earl of Gloucester, but having been deprived of it by Payne de Turbeville, who acted under the crown upon the earl's death, he was incensed thereby to the commission of this violence; without entirely rejecting the account given by this respectable historian, whose - - T. A W © : accuracy when he treats of the affairs of Wales exceeds that of any other English author who has preceded him, other causes may be assigned for this insurrection : illewelyn Bren, as has been just observed, is not known in the Welsh annals, but pedigrees still preserved in the principality, inform us, that he was grandson to Ifor • , - - - * lord . . . . * Bar. vol. 1, p. 183. * - + It is difficult to say what Dugdale means by provision from the king or superior lords to their the castle of Bueite in Ireland. Builth in Brecon- knights, esquires or other retinue, from the French shire was then in the possession of the Mortimer Bouche, a mouth. - family. t . . . § Tourney, tourneyment or Tournament; i. e. f Bouche of court, or as it commonly occurs provision for his horses when engaged in war; or Bowge of court was an allowance of diet or belly- tournaments. - . 130 HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE, w lord of Sanghenydd, of which district Caerphili was the manorial castle. Ifor being. dispossessed of this fortress and the greatest part of his property which descended. to him from a long line of ancestry, by the Normans under Fitzhammon, left behind. him no doubt some memorials of his right and documents for its recovery at a fit. opportunity. From the conqueror of Glamorganshire the castle of Caerphili and, manor of Sanghenydd came to Gilbert earl of Clare by marriage. On failure of the male issue of this nobleman, it descended to his daughter Eleanor, who married the younger Spencer, and after his death, William Zouch of Mortimer, who in her rights laid claim to it during the minority of her son by the first h usband, and afterwards. laid siege to it in 1529.” During these contentions, it should seem that Llewelyn, Bren thought he might assert his claim with success, and in support of it, he brought, it is said, ten thousand men into the field, with whose assistance he assailed the castle and gained possession of it. To oppose him, the English monarch sent John, Giffard, lord of Bronllys, who had been appointed custos of the lands of Gilberts late earl of Clare in Glamorganshire, or (as they are disfigured in the Faedera), in Glamorgan and Morgannon. He was directed to proceed under the command of. Humphrey Bohun earl of Hereford, the general of the forces on this expedition. Of the battles which were fought and the events that ensued in this campaign, little, is known, but it is clear that this rebellion was Soon, suppressed, and that the Welsh chieftain and his two sons Griffith and Jeuan were taken prisoners and, committed to the tower of London, i where they remained in June 1317, when, the king commanded his treasurers and chamberlain, to pay John de Crumbwell, eonstable of that fortress, three pence a day for the support of each of them in , future, as well as the arrears then due to him. - The result of this short lived, though perhaps formidable rising, was unusually favourable to the Welsh inhabitants, who obtained a considerable alleviation of some º of the old feodal services, by which they were bound to their lords, as well as an . addition of several privileges before enjoyed by them, and which were granted in , hopes to secure their future peaceable demeanour. Amongst others, the fines usu- ally paid the lord by his tenants for the marriage of their daughters, called Amobrº or GwobrMerch, were moderated, freeholders were allowed to put a son into holy, orders, if they had more than one, without the king's licence,and to dispose of their lands for three years to any of their countrymen of their own condition, except toº monks and religious bodies: these together with the previous indulgences by the earl of Gloucester, which were very great, rendered the inhabitants of Gla-- morganshire easy and contented. . . . . . . - - * Scarcely were the troubles in Scotland terminated, when the king's partiality for * Faedera, tom 4, p. 374, # Ibid, tom. 3, p. 649, wº . HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. , 151 2, - the two D’Espencers again discovered itselfand set the nation in a flame: the elder of these noblemen he created earl of Winchester, and the younger by his marri. age with Eleanor eldest sister and co-heir of Gilbert earl of Gloucester enjoyed that title. Hugh D’Espencer the younger had been placed by the Lancastrian faction in the office of chamberlain of the household to the king, a situation which gave him frequent opportunities of ingratiating himself and excluding all : others from the notice of his master; he employed these advantages with such success that he soon supplied the place of Gaveston in the monarch's friendship and favour. Gaveston and D'Espencer were both young and handsome in their persons, equally proud, haughty, ambitious, rapacious and debauched, but in point of avarice Hugh was if possible more insatiable than his predecessor; by his mar- riage he had obtained the greatest part of the territory of Glamorgan, and was very desirous of adding to it the neighbouring royalty of Gower: William de Breos the then lord of Gower, was a dissolute and expensive man, of ruined fortune, and who, as has been seen, had carried on a kind of swindling transaction in the sale of these estates; in the first place, he had agreed to sell them to the earl of Hereford, then to the two Mortimers who were ignorant of any former agreement, and lastly to Hugh D’Espencer who had this advantage over his competitors, that he purchased with the king's licence, and was supported by the royal authority; but there was yet another claimant, John de Mowbray who had married de Breos's daughter, insisted upon her right to the inheritance; thus far Walsingham, * but Mr. Carte inclining to the monk of Malmsbury, whose relation he says accords more nearly with the original deeds noticed by Sir William Dugdale, assumes it differently; according to him, William de Breos had two daughters, the eldest Aliva wife to John de Mowbray : the younger, Jane married to James de Bohun of Midherst, for whom the estate of Brambre lay very convenient, as that of Gower did for Mowbray; William therefore by a special deed granted the honour and land of Gower to John de Mowbray and Aliva, to the heirs of their bodies lawfully to be begotten, with remainder to Humphrey de Bohun earl of Hereford and his heirs; in virtue of this grant, Mowbray entered upon the land without any licence from the king, of whom it was held in capite, and this served young D'Espencer (who wanted to get into his hands a tract of country adjoining to his , - own * Walsingham, hist. Angliae, p. 113, in Camden's Script. Ang. Norman. † The title of baron de Breos of Gower, is now Berkley grandson of the above Sir Maurice mar- possessed by the earl of Berkley, whose ancestor, ried Isabel daughter of Thomas Mowbray, cousin Sir Maurice Berkley, in the beginning of the and coheir of John Mowbray Duke of Norfolk and fourteenth century married Elizabeth daughter of widow of Henry Ferrers, - 3ugh D'Espencer, and soon afterwards James . #3: HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE, own) as a pretence to sue him in order to procure a sentence adjudging it to be forfeited: John and the earl of Hereford both interested in the settlement, alledged that the entry was made according to the customs of the Marches, and insisted upon their rights; as these were questions implicating every tenure there, the lords Marchers were unanimous in resisting an inquiry; they loudly exclaimed against the rapacity of D'Espencer, which seemed to threaten all their possessions, and conscious that they had no other remedy than force, they in open arms demanded of the king that he should be either banished the realm or imprisoned and brought to trial: in this confederacy the names of de Bohun, Mortimer, Audley, Damory, Mowbray, Berkley, Tyes or Teys, Giffard and Talbot were the most distinguished. Finding that their menaces were disregarded, they proceeded to violence, and com- mitted terrible devastation upon D’Espencer's property in Glamorganshire, killing and imprisoning his servants, burning, defacing and destroying his castles, and carrying off the effects found therein to a very great value, and they afterwards made such havoc in his manors in the western counties that twenty thousand pounds would have been insufficient to repair the damages: the insurgents then entered into a strict league with the earl of Lancaster, and thus became sufficiently powerful to enforce a sentence of banishment against the obnoxious favourites. Both the D’Espencers were then abroad, and upon this account found it necessary to prolong their absence, yet afterwards they recovered sufficient strength to appeal against the sentence as informal and illegal, inasmuch as it had been passed against the king's will, and without the free assent of parliament, both being at the time in a kind of duress, and over-awed by a force which they durst not contradict; these and other pleas were so successfully maintained and argued in their favour, that a reversal was speedily obtained, and the father and son recovered their li- berty and property. - - : . . The faction still continuing in rebellion, the king, by the advice of his council, resolved to make head against them, and by force of arms reduce them to obe- dience; so vigourously were his measures at this time carried into effect that se- veral of the most powerful barons submitted to his mercy; but the earl of Here- ford with some others, and about three thousand of his followers, marched north- wards, to join the earl of Lancaster. Of those who submitted, the two Mortimers were sent to the tower, Maurice Berkley and Hugh Audley (the father) to the castle of Wallingford, and the rest were imprisoned in different places, until it could be determined in what manner they were to be treated: the others upon the termination of the truce with Scotland, joined the standard of Robert Bruce, but the cowardice of Lancaster, who fled at the first approach of the king's forces, - - - - . entirely HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. 155 sº entirely ruined their cause and they were defeated; the earl of Hereford, en- deavouring to pass the bridge at Boroughbridge, in Yorkshire, was run thro ugh the body with a lance, by a Welshman, as it said, who lurked beneath it: he was buried at the friar's preacher's at York, and his death happened, according to Dug- dale, upon the 6th of March, 1921 ; the earl of Lancaster was taken prisoner in - the same battle and públicly executed as a rebel and traitor. Thus, ended this - great rebellion, which for a number of years had miserably embroiled. the nation, - and depopulated the country. . . . - The younger D’Espencer was now constituted governor of Brecknock castle, and afterwards obtained a grant of the lordship, together with Penkelly, Cantreff Selyff, Blanllyfni and Dinas, late the property of the earl of Hereford and Roger Mortimer,” Giffard and Rhys ap Hywel, who had been attainted for the late re- bellion.—This last was the lineal descendant of Bleddyn ap Maenarch and grand- son of that Trahaern fychan who was so inhumanly murdered by William de Breos. of Brecknock. Rhys ap Hywel afterwards joined the party of the queen,t and was principally instrumental in seizing the person of his - unhappy soverei gn, when he was made a prisoner in Glamorganshire. -- - Upon the death of the D’Espencers the several confiscations were reversed, and the property restored to the family of the former owners. : : - John de Bohun, eldest son of the deceased earl, succeeded to the family honours and estates: he married, first, Alice, daughter of Edmund Fitzalan earl of Arun- del, who died in childbirth, and was buried in the same grave with her infant son, who expired soon after he was christened; his second wife was Margaret, daugh- --- ter of Ralph lord Bassett of Drayton by whom he had no issue: owing to his ill state of health he interfered very little in public business, but appointed his younger brother (Sir Edward Bohun) his lieutenant to execute the office of high constable of England: in this character he attended the king to Nottingham, when the plan was laid for apprehending the atrocious Mortimer, and with his brothers. Humphrey and William he was greatly aiding in the execution of the business; but though John was not fond of an active life, it seems he had no dislike to - honors and could occasionally ºxert himself in the service of his sovereign, for Dugdale informs us, that upon the 20th of January, 20. Edw. II, he was made a . . . . } . - knight * In the fourth of Edward the second, Roger in the following year had the inheritance of thºse Mortimer of Chirk, second son of Roger Mortimer lordships confirmed to him by the king, to hold of Wigmore, by Maud de Breos, was appointed go: for the third part of a barony by the service oft. wernor of the castles of Blänllyfni and Dinas, and knight's fees. ' ' ' ' ' " . . . . . . . + Carte's Hist. Engl. vol. 2, P. 377. - #. A. D. 1326. X. 134 HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE, knight of the Bath, and had by prince Edward's" special commands the robes of an earl for that solemnity, allowed him out of the king's wardrobe, after which, being girt with the sword of knighthood, he went with Edward-the-third, in the first year of his reign to Scotland, and in the ninth of the same king's reign he was also in another expedition to that country: he died in 1335, and was buried at the abbey of Stratford le Bow, being at the time of his death possessed of the following manors, a tenement called Blanch-Appleton, in the city of London; the manor of Wokesey, in Wiltshire; Whittenhurst, in Gloucestershire; the castles of Hay, Brecknock, Caldecott and Huntingdon, in Wales and the Marches; the manor of Agmondesham, in the county of Bucks; Northampstead, in Hampshire; Enfield, in Middlesex; Farnham, Dunmow, Fobbing, Querndon, Badewe and Deepden in Essex; Kenebauton, with the castle and honour in Huntingdonshire; Walden, great Waltham and Plessets (or Plessy) with the castle in Essex also, and - the lordship of Donne also in Middlesex, which he held jointly with his second wife Margaret. Eleanor a sister of this earl was married to James le Botiller, earl of Carrick, afterwards earl of Grmond. Cartesays, that in the third year of the reign of Edward the third, the king gave licence to Edward (he should have said John) de Bohun, earl of Hereford, to grant the manors of Kilpec and Trunell in the county of Hereford, and the bailiffship of the forest of Hay, to the said James earl of Ormond and Eleanor his wife, and the heirs of their bodies. From the issue of this marriage descended the celebrated James Butler, duke of Ormond, who, upon the restoration of Charles the second was created earl of Brecknock and baron of Llanthony. : 2. • Humphrey de Bohun succeeded to the titles and property of his brother John, when he was twenty fouryears of age:Dugdale stiles him, “N obilis Armiger Seigneur de Brekennock.” In the eleventh of Edward the thirdt he had one hundred and forty six pounds fourteen shillings and eight-pence assigned him for the wages of . thirty men at arms, of his retinue in the garrison of Perth in Seotland, from the fourteenth of November, in the tenth year of that king's reign, to the twentieth of April then next following; and in the fourteenth of the same monarch, he was in the great naval engagement at Sluys, when the French were defeated: after. ºwards in his character of high constable of England, he attended the king in his expedition to France,f accompanied by three hundred men from his lordship of Brecknock. In 1347 he was called upon to collect as many men as could be found fit for service within his territories, for the defence of the kingdom, and in the twenty-sixth of Edward the third, that monarch apprehending an invasion by the ** Bar, vol. 4, p. 484, t A.D. 1337. f Faedera, tom 5, p. 508. - HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE, 135. • French, commanded Humphrey de Bohun forthwith to repair to some of his lord- ships in Essex, there to give his assistance in case any such attempt should be. made; and upon a commission of array in the same year, he was charged with sixty men for his honour of Brecknock, after which nothing more is heard of his military exploits. - - Upon some offence given him he wholly disfranchised the burgesses of Breck. nock, revoking and rescinding all grants and charters whatsoever given them by his ancestors, and deaf to all intreaties, as well as the most humble submission, he kept them in a state of servile dependance during the remainder of his life: the cause of this arbitrary proceeding is not known, but probably the men of Brecknock proved refractory upon the subject of the levies; Hugh Thomas upon this, remarks with some spleen that “he was never married, and always sick, which made him a cross peevish old batchelor:” the monks of Walden however speak more handsomely of him, “ Humfredus de Boun &c. Londoniae quiescit in ecclesia Fratrum Augustinensium, qui claustrum nostrum et illorum honorifice construxit; atterna gaudia reddet ei Altissimus, qui singulis secundum viris meritum confert diversa stipendia meritorum.” - By his will, dated in October 1361, a short period before his death, (in which he stiles himself “Counte de He'ford et D’Eez (Essex) et Seign'r de Breken”) he devised one hundred marks to the priory of Saint John's in Brecknock, to be di- vided among them for the benefit of the house, provided they would pardon and assoil him for what he owed them, and pray for him ; to the friars preachers of Brecon he gave ten pounds to pray for him, and to the like religious order at Chelmsford ten pounds upon the same condition; he particularly enjoined that his jewels should be the last things sold, and that after payment of his debts their value should be applied to charitable purposes, “because (says he) we have great delight in looking at them, “par resouns y’nous avoim ew granat delig't de eux regarder.” He died at his castle of Plessy or Plesset in Essex, leaving his brother William's son his heir. - - t In 1846 the castles of Blanllyfni and Dinas, late Roger Mortimer's, were by grant from the crown held by Gilbert lord Talbot of Goodrich castle, (who in the fourth of this reign had been constituted justice of South Wales) for the term of his natural life, and afterwards in consideration of his eminent services to the State, the grant was extended to the inheritance of these demesnes; he died this year, and was succeeded by his son Richard, who was then charged with the finding QIle: * Royal Wills, p. 44. X 2 156 HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. one hundred men” well armed, from his lordships of Blänllyfni, Crickhowel and Ystradyw. - William de Bohun the twin brother of Edward, who was drowned after the death of his brother John, was created earl of Northampton, by king Edward the third; he married Elizabeth daughter of the lord Bartholomew of Baddlesmere, and widow of lord Edmond de Mortimer, in whose right he held the lordship of Melenydd in Radnorshire, and other possessions in the Marches; he died Sep- tember 15, 1350, and was buried at W alden, leaving the earldom of Northampton . to his son Humphrey, who upon the death of his uncle succeeded also to the earldoms of Hereford and Essex, and all the family honours and estates, but being a minor, he was committed to the guardianship of Richard Fitzalan earl of Arundel, (whose daughter Joan he afterwards married) “whereupon (says Dugdale), he had licence from the king to travel, and the next year being of full : age, he had livery of his lands: shortly after which, viz. in the fortieth of Edward the third: he was the principal person employed in that embassie unto Galachius duke of Milan, to treat with him for a marriage betwixt Leonel duke of Clarence, and Violanta daughter of that duke; and in the forty third of Edward the third the was in that expedition then made into France, so also in the forty sixth of Edward the third.”$ - - According to Hugh Thomas he lived in great splendour in the castle offrecknock, which he considerably enlarged, and fitted up in the best style of the times. To conciliate the good will and friendship of his neighbours, he restored to the dis- franchised burgesses, all those chartered liberties of which the severity of his uncle Humphrey had deprived them. - . : By a charter, dated at Brecknock February 16th, the thirty ninth of Edward the third, upon a fine of sixty marks, he privileged them to hold a fair for sixteen days together, viz., eight days before, and eight days after the festival of St. Leo- nard (16 November) annually: this, together with the large demand for provisions of every kind, oceasioned by the hospitality of the earl, and the great resort of company to the castle, elevated Brecknock to a consequence it had never known before, and made it the great mart of South Wales: the character of this noble lord was as conspicuous on the theatre of public life, as it was amiable within the smaller circle of his dependants; he has been just now seen discharging a very im- portant trust, in which the interest of the royal family was concerned, and repeat- edly accompanying his sovereign to France: in the forty fifth of Edward the third || he was again employed in a diplomatic mission to the duke of Bretagne, for the ... --" . purpose * Faedera, tom. 5, p. 508. # A. D. 1866. # A. D. 1369. § A. D. 1372. - - | A. D. 1371. ... * *. - .* HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. 167 purpose of concluding an alliance with that prince against France, and was pre- sent in the same year in the naval fight,” in which the Flemish fleet under Pe- terson was defeated. For eleven years he lived a friend and blessing to all around him, and when he died, they lost a father, a good and worthy lord. - . . . . –“ Hear me, And I will tell you in a few plain words, How he deserved those best and glorious titles, 'Tis naught complex, 'tis clear as truth and virtue. He loved his people, deemed them all his children, The good exalted and depress'd the bad. - He spurn'd the flattering crew—with scorn rejected Their smooth advice that only means themselves, Their schemes to aggrandize; - . . . Well knowing that a people in their rights And industry protected,—living safe, Beneath the sacred shelter of the laws, Encouraged in their genius, arts and labours, And happy each as he himself deserves, Are ne'er ungrateful: with unsparing hand, They would for him provide; their filial love, - And confidence were his unfailing treasury, And every honest man his faithful guard.” - Tancred and Sigismunda. He died in 1377 , and was buried at Walden, (although his effigies in stone is in the south aisle of the choir of Gloucester) leaving two daughters, Eleanor married to Thomas Plantagenet, sirnamed of Woodstock, sixth son of king Edward the third, and Mary who married Henry earl of Derby, afterwards king Henry the fourth; the earldoms of Essex and Northampton were the inheritance of the eldest, and in her right enjoyed by her husband, who was also appointed constable of England, during the royal pleasure: the earl of Derby was created duke of Here- ford: the lordship of Brecon seems to have remained in settlement during the wi- dowhood of Joan the countess dowager of Hereford. Eleanor died the 3d of Octo- ber 1890, and was buried at St. Edmund's chapel Westminster, where her monu- ment still remains. Mary died in the year 1419, and was buried in the abbey of Walden in Essex. . - - Thus ended the male line of the noble race of the Bohuns lords of Brecknock, * Carte's Hist, Eng. vol. 2, p. 523, 15s HISTORY OF BRECKNoCKSHIRE. the last of whom made ample amends for the tyranny or worthlessness of some of his predecessors, most of whom seemed to have considered their Welsh territories of no further use than as a source of revenue, or a nursery for soldiers. - In the parliamentheldatWestminster, the twenty eighthoff dward the third, Roger the son of Edmond Mortimer obtained a reversal of the judgment given against his father as erroneous and void, upon which he was restored to the title of earl of March, and had restitution of the lordships of Blänllyfni and Dinas, with several others of the forfeited estates. He died February 26, 1360, the thirty fourth of Ed- ward the third, at Ronera in Burgundy, possessed of the manors and castles of Radnor, Gwrthrynion, Cwmydauddwr, Cefnllys, Melenydd, Pilleth and Knucklas in Radnorshire, the cantred of Builth and the manors and castles of Blänllyfni and Dinas in Brecknockshire, and of a moiety of the lordship of Ewyas in Herefordshire. He was brought to England to be buried, and though his sepulture took place in Wigmore Abbey, yet there was a solemn obsequy kept for him in the royal chapel, at Windsor, the king assigning a cloth of gold called Beaudekyn,t out of his great wardrobe for the celebration thereof, he was succeeded in title and estate by Edmond his son and heir. - : • Henry the fourth, sirnamed of Bolingbroke, (where he was born) by his marriage. with Mary the youngest daughter of Humphrey de Bohun the last, enjoyed the earldom of Hereford, and was afterwards elevated to the dukedom, he had also the lordship of Brecknock in reversion, though Hugh Thomas gives it to his uncle, who married the eldest sister. To follow Henry through all his circumstances until he deposed his cousin Richard the second, and assumed the crown, will be - wholly unnecessary, and indeed irrelevant here; that he was an usurper is clear, for Richard's resignation was undoubtedly forced, and he had previously declared the earl of March his heir: there is something very singular in the character of this unfortunate monarch, as described by historians, as well as Shakespeare; in the early part of his life, and while he sat upon the throne, he was thoughtless, extravagant, fickle, fond of dress, and entirely addicted to gaiety and dissipation. “Fair laughs the morn and soft the Zephyr blows, While proudly riding o'er the azure realm, . . . In gallant trim the gilded vessel goes, Youth at the prow and pleasure at the helm, Regardless of the furious whirlwind's sway, Which hush'd in grim repose expects his evening's prey.”f - + Royal Wills. - #. Gray's Bard. . - HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. 158 yet though we see the captain of the ship, while the favouring gale continued, talking like a fool, acting like a madman, and playing “such antic tricks before high cheaven as make the angels weep,” yet the howling of the blast no sooner reaches his ears, than all his follies fly with it, no sooner does the iron arm of adversity fall upon the hitherto giddy and unthinking Richard, than he becomes the hero and the philosopher, the moralist and the christian: though Shakespeare may not be correct - as to the very words used by him, the poet is better supported by history, even in the most minute particulars of his conduct after he was deserted by his subjects, than is generally supposed. There is something so truly pathetic, so extremely $ ºbeautiful in the reflections of the son of “the sable warrior,” upon hearing of the fate of some of his favourites, that I cannot resist reminding the reader of them. - “Within the hollow crown - - That rounds the mortal temples of a king ; . Keeps Death his court, and there the Antick sits - Scoffing his state and grinning at his pomp, - Allowing him a breath: a little scene To monarchize, be fear'd and kill with looks; 3. Infusing him with self and vain conceit, - As if this flesh, which walls about our life, Were brass impregnable; and humour'd thus, - Comes at the last, and with a little pin w Bores through his eastle wall,—and * . ~~ —farewell king!” *During the four first years of the reign of Henry the fourth, the territory of słłrecknock was greatly harrassed by the incursions of that bold and enterprizing chieftain Owen Glyndwr or Glyndwrdwy, who exclusive ofthe enmity which he inveterately bore to the house of Lancaster, had a personal quarrel with the well , known David Gam, a native of that county, and a warm supporter of the Lancastrian - interest; irritable as these chiefs and indeed all Welshmen are supposed to be, they were fired by the madness of party rage and opposing factions, insomuch that their resentment against each other became as violent as it was implacable. A brief introduction to these celebrated partizans may not perhaps be unacceptable. Einion, the second son of Rhys ap Hywel, whose attainder has been noticed, embraced a militay life, and served our third Edward in the memorable battles of Cressy and Poictiers; after a long residence in England he returned to his native \ - - - country * I cannot help lamenting that this drama is not tolerated, some of Shakespeare's most beautiful. more familiar to an English audience; while the passages in Richard the second are almost over-- ºurses of the beldames in Richard the third are looked. * - - - ...” 160 HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHI \ country with considerable opulence, and married the rich heiress of Howel, lord of of Miscin in Glamorganshire; he became possessed by purchase of nearly the whole of what is now called the hundred of Devynnock, from Llywel on the borders of Caermarthenshire to the river Tarell near Brecon. He built a castellated mansion for his residence in the parish of Llanspyddid, lately called the castle field, now the property of Penry Williams of Penpont, Esq.; it is described to have been situated on the fall of a small brook into the Usk, near Bettws or Penpont chapel: there is still an unevenness in the surface of the grou nd, though there are not now the smallest - vestiges of buildings remaining; Hugh Thomas, who wrote in 1698, recollects to have seen the ruins, and there are others living who remember the rubbish being removed and the soil cleared of the stones and materials of the walls: it was called from the owner, Castell Einion Sais, or Einion the Englishman's castle, an appellation by which the Welsh to this day, sometimes distinguish not only the English settlers among them, but also their own countrymen, who have been brought up and edu- cated in England. David Llewelyn or Dafydd ap Llewelyn, generally called David Gam, or squinting David, was the fourth in descent from Einion Sais, and inherited the estate and demesne of Castell Einion Sais; his father Llewelyn had also pur- chased the mansions and lands of Peyton, (Wallice Peityn) now called Peityn gwin, Peityn du, and Peityn glas, in the parishes of Garthbrengy and Llanddew, from William Peyton, the last Brecknockshire resident of that Norman family, for three hundred marks: in consequence of an affray in the High Street of Brecknock, in which David unfortunately killed his kinsman Ritsiartfawr o'r Slwch, he was com- pelled to fly into England, and to avoid a threatened prosecution for the murder, attached himself to the Lancastrian party, to whose interest he ever afterwards. most faithfully adhered. There can be little doubt but that Shakespeare in his bur- iesque character of Fluellin, intended David Gam, though for obvious reasons, as his descendants were then well known and respected in the English court, he chose to disguise his name. I have called Fluellin a burlesque character, because his prib- bles and prabbles, which are generally out heroded, sound ludicrously to an English. - as well as a Welsh ear, yet after all, Llewelyn is a brave soldier and an honest fellow; he is admitted into a considerable degree of intimacy with the king and stands high in his goodopinion, which is strong presumptive proof, notwithstanding Shakespeare, the better to conceal his object, describes the death of Sir f)avid Gam, yet that he intended David Llewelyn by this portrait of the testy Welshman; for there was no. other person of that country in the English army, who could have been supposed to have been upon such terms of familiarity with the king; and it must be observed, that Llewelyn was the name by which he was known in that army, and not Gam or . - - - squinting HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. 161 squinting, by which epithet, though it was afterwards assumed by his family, he would probably have knocked down any man who dared to address him. By his behaviour on this memorable day, he in some measure made amends for a life of vio- lence and rapine, and raised his posterity into riches andrespect; butalas! how weak, how idle is family pride, how unstable worldly wealth at different periods between - the years 1550 and 1700, I have seen the descendants of this hero of Agincourt (who lived like a wolf and died like a lion,) in possession of every acre of ground in the county of Brecon; at the commencement of the eighteenth century I find one of them common bellman of the town of Brecknock, and before the conclusion, tWO others supported by the inhabitants of the parish where they resided, and even the name of Games in the legitimate line extinct.* - * “The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power; And all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave, Await alike th' inevitable hour; . . . - The paths of glory lead but to the grave.” Owen ap Griffith fychan, commonly called Owen Glyndwr, was a gentleman of North Wales, liberally educated at the English inns of court and intended for the bar, but he afterwards quitted the study of the law and had an appointment in the household of Richard the second. Walsingham says, he was scutifer or esquire of the body to that king; and Carte asserts, that he was actually, attendant upon the royal person when he was seized and made prisoner at Flint castle. Henry had no kindness for Owen, on account of the fidelity and friendship he bore to Richard, and Owen was as much dissatisfied with the usurper, for the traiterous, though success- - ful designs he had formed and executed, as well as the wrongs he had done to his late royal master. Owen's estate, which was considerable, lay contiguous to the demesne of Reginald lord Grey of Ruthin, who in the true spirit of a marcher, made several very unwarrantable encroachments upon Owen's property, who sought for redress in the king's courts of law, but without success. Henry, upon his expedi- tion to Scotland, summoned all the military tenants of the crown to attend him; one of the writs for this purpose was delivered to Reginald, who maliciously detained it until the day before the general rendezvous at Newcastle, so that it was impossible Owen could obey it: this was evidently done with a design to subject him to the forfeiture of his lands, but without waiting for any legal process of confiscation, he himself most unjustly and by force of arms, seized upon part of the possessions of ^. Owen, . * of this I have since had some reasons to entertain doubts, though the tradition of the family. is. - as , º, - & • against the legitimacy of that branch who now bear this name. . Y. 169 HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. Owen, depending upon his interest at court to sanction these violent measures. Sensible that he had little to expect from the royal clemency, and despairing of justice in any other way, Owen had recourse to the sword, and returning force for force, obtained possession of his estate. ... " - Upon the king's return from Scotland, the lord Greycomplained to him of theinjury he had received, and the sovereign without entering into the merits of the dispute, (to avoid the tedious and puzzling mode adopted by lawyers, of hearing both sides of the question) instantly gave him a commission, in which lord Talbot was included, to assemble troops and apprehend Owen as a traitor and a rebel; and so suddenly did they come upon him, that it was with difficulty º into the mountains. Finding that his enemy was thus protected while he was proscribed, Owen now resolved upon an extremity which he at first little thought of; he threw off his allegiance to the English crown and boldly assumed the stile and character of prince of Wales.” To his countrymen he urged his maternal descent from Llewelyn ap Griffith, who was defeated and slain near Builth, though in fact he was descended only from a younger brother of the house of Powis; the very name however of a British prince was sufficient to rouse the spirit of the Welsh: numbers crowded to his standard, and he became daily more formidable: thus supported, he shewed no mercy to his enemies—burning and --- laying waste the property of all those who adhered to the cause of Henry. ...” - It is remarkable that Owen met with the greatest opposition from his own first cousin Hywel Sele of Nannau, who was a zealous favourer of the house of Lancas- ter; of his vengeance for an iniquitous attempt of this relation, Mr. Pennant gives the following acount, “I have been informed that the abbot of Cymmer near Dol- gelli, in hopes of reconciling them, brought them together, and to all appearance effected his charitable design. While they were walking out, Owen observed a doe 5 feeding, and told Hywel who was reckoned the best archer of his days, that there was a fine mark for him; Hywel bent his bow, and pretending to aim at the doe, suddenly turned and discharged the arrow full at the breast of Glyndwr, who fortu- mately had armour beneath his cloaths, and so received no hurt. Enraged at this treachery, he seized on Sele, burnt his house and hurried him away from the place, nor could any one learn how he was disposed of; ’till forty years after, the skeleton of a large man was discovered in the hollow of a great oak, in which Owen was Sup- posed to have immured him in reward for his perfidy. The ruins of the old house are to be seen in Nannau park, a mere compost of cinders and ashes.” “The next exertion ofowen's assumed power, was the summoning a parliament at Machynlleth ** A.D. 1400. - | Tº º | º º º º º - º | - - - º º º º - HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. 163. in Montgomeryshire, and here he was successful beyond his most sanguine expec- tations: numbers of the Welsh nobility and gentry were obedient to his call, and pledged their lives and fortunes to support his cause, and here among the rest came David Gam,” but he came not as the friend of his country, or even from motives of curiosity; he approached the court ofone with whom it does not appear that at this time he had any personal quarrel, armed with the poigniard of an assassin. In a word, it is strongly suspected he was employed by Henry to murder Owen : the plot. however by timely discovery was rendered ineffectual, and the foul agent of it taken into custody, when he certainly would have suffered an ignominious death, but for the intercession of some of Owen's best friends in his behalf; he was still however detained in prison at Machynlleth, although he was sometime afterwards released (as the Welsh historians say) upon his parole of honour and engaging not to serve against Glyndwr in his present contest with England; yet notwithstanding this - undertaking, upon his return to Brecknock he broke his faith and recommenced a formidable opposition, persecuting with the greatest rancour all who were attached to Owen. It was probably at his instigation or that of his friends, that the country people destroyed the eastle of Dinas, then belonging to Edmond Mortimer, who, compelled by the impolitic conduct of Henry, who neglected to ransom him, had joined the faction of Glyndwr. Leland notes, that “the people about Dinas did burn Dinas castel, that oene Glindour should not kepe it for his fouteres.” (favourers). The unexampled successes of Owen's forces and supporters, thus strengthened by the aid of the house of Mortimer, and afterwards of the gallant Hotspur, made Henry tremble on his throne. All the castles in Wales and the Marches were forthwith strongly fortified, and Englishmen of approved fidelity appointed gover- nors. Brecknock was intrusted to Sir Thomas Berkley with a power of demanding assistance from the sheriffs of six adjoining counties, should necessity require it; Llandovery to John Touchet lord Audley, t Laugharne to Sir Henry le Scrope, Crickhowelt to John Pauncefot,STretower to Sir James Berkley, Abergavenny and Harold's Ewyas to Sir William Beauchamp, Goodrich to Sir Thomas Neville of Furnivale, Eardisley to Sir Nicholas Montgomery, Caerleon and Usk to Sir Edward .* Carte, and upon his authority Pennant, erro- heously call David Gam the brother in law of. Glyndwr, and state him to have married one of Owen's sisters. The fact is, that David married Gwenllian, the daughter of Gwylymºap Hywel grach, and Morfudd the sister of Glyndwr was tº Faedera, tom. 8, p. 328. s Charlton married to David ap Ednyfed Gam, a nobleman of North Wales, of the house of Tudor Trevor; a similarity of names and an ignorance of the pedi- gree occasioned the mistake, Cam is crooked, but when applied to the person means any defect in the eyes or limbs. : A. D. 1403. § Pauncefote or Pauncefoot. John Pauncefoot was sheriff of Gloucestershire in 1421, and 1433. º *g Y 2 . 164 HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE, Charlton of Powis, Caerphili and Ewyas Lacy to Constance dowager lady Despenser, Manerbier to Sir John Cornwall, Paynscastle and Royll (Elvel or Colwyn) to Thomas earl of Warwick, Huntingdon to Anne countess of Stafford, Lionshall and Dorston to Sir Walter Fitzwalter, Stapleton to John Brian baron of Burford, Brampton to Brian de, Brampton and the castle of Snowdon to Sir John Chandos:* every precaution was also taken to render these fortresses secure.t. Proclamations of pardon were soon afterwards issued out with a commission to Sir J ohn Oldcastle - knight, John ap Henry and John Fairford clerk, (vicar of Llanville and prebendary of Garthbrengy in Breconshire) to extend the royal clemency to all such rebels within the lordships of Brecknock, Cantreff-Selyff, Hay, Glynbwch and Dinas, as should immediately return to their allegiance, and deliver up their arms offensive and defensive; the king at the same time reserving to himself the right of disposal of their estates and properties. This instrument is dated at Devynnock, September 15, 1403, and is subscribed “peripsum regem,” as is a pardon granted the day *…* * before, dated at Hereford, to the rebels of Abergavenny and others, so that it should seem Henry himself was in Breconshire in September 1403. In the year follow - - * * - ſº ng John Touchet, lord Audley, was associated with Richard Beauchamp, earl of Warwick and lord of Abergavenny, in defence of the castle, town and lordship of Brecknock for one whole year, having one hundred men at arms, and three hundred archers on horseback, assigned them for that purpose, with an allowance of twelve-pence a day for each man at arms, and to each archer * - six-pence. All these preparations served only to shew the very formidable height to which Owen had arrived in the English court, and raised his character still higher in the opinion of his countrymen; still he repeated his incursions into South Wales, and terror and desolation every where accompanied his steps: in Gwentland it is true. he met with a repulse, but he soon recovered this temporary check and suddenly rallying his men, he overtook the English army at Craig y Dorth in Monmouthshire, where he gained a complete victory, and pursued them to the very gates of Mon- mouth; from hence he proceeded forward, burning and destroying all before him: towns, villages, castles and forts fell indiscriminately sacrifices to his fury: among others, the castle of Abergavenny and the town and castle of Caerdiff were de- stroyed, excepting only a street in the latter, in which the monastery of Franciscan . . It should seem that wards was appointed gov tº 2 Sir John Chandos after- ernor, or had the custody of Penkelley castle in Breconshire, for it appears by the bishop of St. Davi . . . . . . . Friars gwili, that in 1406 Richard Andrew clerk was presented or nominated to officiate in the free ; chapel ‘(St. Leonard's) within the castle of Pen- Aber- kelley, by Sir John Chandos knight. . . - . . . + Ibid. p. 331. - - - • d's register, now at Aber- | * - ( ) ģ} | . |-§§ \!} P. Ñ}Ä% №, º NŅ . // % ^ ///////√ ||||////% * /. * / //, > zzº */* - "|"RIE TOWIE IR ('A S T LIE , % |- ./º/3/aware.ºc. z/ * % ***** º - 2 /. º/”. Z CRICKHO WIFL CASTLE, º, zzº * HISTORY of BRECKNOCKSHIRE. 165 ‘friars was situated,—a religious body supposed to have been favourable to the cause of Owen; he afterwards sent his eldest son Griffith with an army into Breck- snockshire, where after an obsti nate en gagement at Myniddy Pwll Melin, (a hill now not known by that name, but supposed to be in the hundred of Crickhowel) he was defeated, and as some say, taken prisoner by the prince of Wales, with the loss of fifteen hundred men. Among the dead bodies on the field, was one which resem- bled Owen so strongly, that it was currently reported he was slain; but upon more minute inquiry, it was found to be his brother Tydyr orTudor, who was so extremely like him in features, that they might easily be mistaken for each other, excepting that Owen had a little wart above one of his eyebrows, which the other had not- The report of the discomfiture and death of their leader, disheartened the Welsh, and numbers, particularly in Glamorganshire, threw themselves upon the mercy of the king; but Owen, though weakened, was not conquered; for some years longer did he continue his exertions and set Henry at defiance, but the future, operations of the war, though interesting, are irrelevant here; it is however worthy of obser- ºvation that in the midst of these tumults, and while death stalked in a thousand shapes around him; the palace of Glyndwr was the seat of festivity and harmony; the martial spirit, the Awen or British muse, at this period, once more revived to celebrate the heroic enterprizes of her darling chieftain. Like himself, the bards of bis time were irregular and wild, and as the taper glimmering in the socket gives a sudden blaze before it is extinguished, so did they produce a few scintillations of ſ genius, which brought down to that age the recollection of the splendour of the for- amer bards, and then sunk in to ever-during darkness upon the fall of their patron and their friend. But though poetry flourished, learning certainly suffered from the boisterousness of the times, for such was the unrelenting and indiscriminate fury of the English, as well as the Welsh, that monasteries and their libraries containing many very valuable manuscripts were destroyed: a loss, the more to be lamented, as it can never be repaired. Henry began this unmanly and mischievous species of warfare,” and Owen did not hesitate to follow his example when an opportunity occurred, and neither side bestowed a thought upon the injury they were doing to posterity by the destruction of those documents, which as men of learning, (for both had claim to that character) it should have been their study to preserve. *. It has been said of Owen as it was of Hannibal, that if he had known how to use victory as well as to obtain it, he would effectually have checked the power of an encroaching foe, and probably have restored to Wales her antient independence; - - - - . . . he * In 1400, Henry plundered the convent of Franciscans at Llanvaes, in Anglesea, and carried away - the monks prisoners, underpretence that they supported Glyndwr. ." .” fö6 HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. he was undoubtedly brave, and fitted for command, but the errors of the Carthagiº nian were the errors of Owen; thus as Hannibal lost sight of the advantages of victory, when he loitered at Cannae, so Glyndwr, if he could not join Percy before the battle of Shrewsbury, (as Mr. Pennant suggests) certainly wanted policy in not attacking the troops of Henry immediately after that engagement, and by this neglect ultimately sealed the ruin of his cause; and as the luxuries of Capua en- ervated the troops of Carthage, so did the plunder which the Welsh acquired, render them rich and factious, and Owen after a stand for several years against the whole power of England, at length found himself forsaken by his friends, and com- pelled to retire to the mountains for safety: even here he might have made terms with Henry; (indeed Stowe" says, he was actually pardoned at the intercession of David Holbetche, f Esq.) but he disdained submission, and determined to die as he had lived, free. . . . . - After wandering about for a time from place to place unnoticed and unknown, he took up his last refuge at Monnington, or as some say Kentchurch, where in the arms of filial piety he found protection, and died September 20, 1415, aged sixty one. - - The place of this chieftain's interment has been a matter of doubt and inquiry among historians, Carte says, it was in the church-yard at Monnington, and the fol- lowing extract from a MS. in the British Museum makes it probable; it at least infers a local tradition of the circumstances; “about the year 1680, the church of Monnington was rebuilt, in the churchyard of which, stood the trunk of a syca- more, in height about nine feet, and two and a half in diameter, which being in the workmen's way was cut down: a foot below the surface of the ground was laid a large grave-stone without any inscription; on its being removed there was disco- vered at the bottom of a well stoned grave, the body (as it is supposed) of Owen. Glyndwr, which was whole and entire and of a goodly stature, but there was no appearance of any remains of a coffin; where any part of it was touched, it fell to powder; after it had been exposed for two days the stone was again placed over it. and the earth was cast in upon it.” - - In the third year of Henry the fourth he granted to the burgesses of Brecond and the . • . * P.338, Édition offé81. - # David Holbétche, sed recte Holbwrch, was the eldest branch differing from the general custom. made a denizen or free citizen of England, in the of the Welsh, preserved their sirname, while the eighth of Henry the fourth, Cotton's records by descendants of the younger children assumed Prynne, p. 458. The ancestor of the tribe of many years afterwards the names of Llwyd and Holbwrch was named Llwarch Holbwreh : they Hughes. - - . . . . . were a Denbighshire family: it is remarkable that . . . Records in the tower of London, 3 Hen. 4, pt. 1, m. 21. HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. - .167 the inhabitants, an exemption from tolls, murage,” piccage and pannage, during plea- sure, and in the thirteenth year of his reign,t by a general inspeximus of all former charters, he renewed and confirmed to the monks of Brecknock all those grants which the munificence and piety of former benefactors had conferred upon them: in the following year he granted to the burgesses of Brecon the first royal charter they had ever enjoyed. The attachment of Sir David Gam and his adherents to his person and family, and the possession of the lordship in right of his wife, account for this partiality to the inhabitants of Brecknock; to the remainder of the principality he was a cruel and merciless tyrant: his son Henry the fifth, by charter, dated May 12, 1415, renewed and confirmed all the antient privileges of the burgesses of Brecknock; in addition to their antient fair upon St. Leonard's day he granted them the priviledges of holding two more fairs for eight days before and eight days after the nativity and decollation of St. John the baptist annually. * Muragium, a tax or payment towards re- pitching of a market town, to place the Supporters pairing the walls of a castle or fortified town. of stalls or standings. Pannage has been before Piccagium, a payment for leave to dig holes in a explained. - • & * * * , , # Records in the tower, 13, H. 4, p. 1, m.5. chAPTER viſ, General History concluded. From the Accession of the Lordship of Brecknock big the Stafford Family, to the present Time. . *~ TPON the death of Johanna countess dowager of Hereford, Anne the widow. AJ of Edmond earl of Stafford, who was slain in the battle of Shrewsbury, and, daughter of Thomas Plantagenet late duke of Gloucester, demanded of the king a division of her late-grandmother's estate; upon which Henry generously gave up. to her and her son the earldoms of Buckingham, Essex, Hereford and Northamp- ton, the lordship of Brecknock and patronage of Llanthony, reserving to himself in his mother's right, only the constableship and some estates in England appen- dant to it; some difficulties afterwards however occurred in making the partition, which produced a petition from the countess Anne, stating, that “the feoffees of Humphrey Bohun conveyed certain lands to Johan de Bohun,” formerly countess of Hereford, of the annual value of one-hundred pounds, to hold to the said coun- tess for life, and after her death to Mary and Alianor, daughters and heirs of the said earl in fee, that Mary died, and the reversion came to Alianor, from whom it descended to the petitioner; that her deeds relating to the said estate were in the hands of John Leventhorp, council for the dutchy of Lancaster, who would not de- liver them without an order from the king's council; that a partition was made in the reign of the late king Henry the fifth, between him as son and heir of Mary before mentioned, and the petitioner, of all lands belonging to the said Humphrey. Bohun, and that in this partition the castle and manor of Brecknock were assigned . to the petitioner as part of her share, of which castle and manor the seigniories of Brenles, Langoit and Canterceli in Wales were parcel; but because doubts had arisen whether they were or were not parcel of the same, and no mention was. made of them, specifically in such partition, and they were said to be seigniories in gross, she prayed for the love of God, and as it would be a work of mercy, that a - 44 writ * Parl. Rolls, H. 6. HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. 169 writ might issue under the king's great or privy seal, to levy the rents, issues and profits of the said lands, as might be thought most advisable to her and her coun- cil.” To which the parliament answered, “let this petition and our answer being first inrolled in the rolls of parliament, be sent to the king's council, and let the lords of the same council there present, have power to determine thereon, and to make such partition, and generally to execute, do and ordain therein, as may be necessary, according to their discretions;”upon this petition it was adjudged in the seventh of Henry the sixth, that the lordships therein mentioned, and the ville of Bronllys were not parcel of the manor of Brecon, and in the thirty ninth year of the same reign,t the forestership of the forest of Cantercely, then belonging to the crown, with the office of seneschal and receiver there, as well as of the lord- ships of Penkelly, Alysanderstone and Llangote were granted to Robert (or rather Roger) Vaughan of Porthaml Esq. in whose descendant: from a female, part of Cantercely now eontinues, although the whole of it was afterwards granted to Henry duke of Buckinghams and the heirs male of his body, upon whose attainder it became revested in the crown: this lady Stafford married for her second husband William Bourchier earl of Eu : no sooner was she possessed of Brecknock than she shewed her authority, in disfranchising the borough, annulling the acts even of her royal predecessors in their favour, and revoking all grants, charters, privileges and immunities whatsoever given them by her noble ancestors, and so kept them during the remainder of her life: by her last will she desired to be buried at Llanthony, near Gloucester, to which she bequeathed one hundred marks in money, or the value thereof, out of such of her moveable goods as should seem best in the dis. cretion of her executors: she died in 1439. - * * The family of Stafford, originally of Norman extraction, was antiently called Toni, and related to William the conqueror. “Le Sire de Tony” appears in the Norman chronicle, quoted by Stowe. The first who assumed the name of Stafford was Robert, governor of Stafford castle in the time of the conqueror. T he male issue failing after three generations, the heiress married one Bagot, of an antient family whose son assumed the mother's name, which was then usual when the mother's rank was superior to the father's: this son's name was Harvey de Stafford, Dugdale calls him lord, though it does not appear that as yet any of the family had - been honoured with the peerage. Edmond de Stafford was created baron Stafford of Stafford castle by king Edward the first. Ralph, lord Stafford, was seneschal of Aquitain, repulsed John, son to the French king, before Aquilon, and shared * Records in the Tower. 7 H. 6, p. 1, m. 3 and 4. # Ibid. 39 H. 6, m. 3. f Lord Ashburnham. § Records in the Tower. 17 E. 4, P. 3, m . 14. - 170 - HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. - the honour of the victory at Cressy, he was also employed in several embassies, installed a knight of the garter in the reign of Edward the third, signalized his valour in reducing the Irish rebels, and was created earl of Stafford in 1350. - Qur first lord of the name of Stafford was created duke of Buckingham by king Henry the sixth, in the twenty third year of his reign, when a whimsical dispute arose about precedence between him and Henry Beauchamp, created at the same time duke of Warwick, which was as whimsically determined by an act of parlia- ment,” ordaining that they should take precedence one, one year and the other, the next year, and that their posterity should have precedence according as who should. first have livery of their lands, luckily the duke of Warwick died without issue, whereupon Humphrey, to prevent the agitation of so important a question in future, obtained agrant upon the twenty second of May, in the twenty fifth of Henry the sixth,i unto himself and his heirs for precedence above all dukes whatsoever, whether in England or France, excepting only such as were of the blood royal; he was afterwards made constable of Dover and Queenborough castles, and warden of the cinque ports, and in the thirty eighth year of the same reign, in consideration of his great and eminent services to Henry, he had another grant from him of all those fines which Walter Devereux of Weobley, in the county of Hereford, esquire, William Hastings of Kirby, in the county of Leicester, esquire, and Walter Hopton of —, in the county of Salop, esquire, were to make to the king for their trans- gressions. This duke of Buckingham, upon his elevation to the title declined his paternal arms, or at least postponed, and placed them in the last quartering of the field, bearing first, Woodstock, or England and France, with a label; secondly Bohun earl of Hereford; thirdly Bohun earl of Northampton, and fourthly Stafford, which arms were afterwards born by his descendants, dukes of that name: he restored to the burgesses of Brecon all those privileges of which his mother had deprived them, confirming them by a new charter dated at Makestock, April 26th, 21st of Henry the 6th:$ a copy of his inspeximus of all the antient charters of the borough is preserved among the MS. collections of Mr. Hugh Thomas in the Bodleian library at Oxford, and is likewise upon record among the archives of the borough. The marked partiality which then prevailed in favour of Englishmen to the exclu. gion of the antient Britons, will appear strongly from a perusal of the following list of burgesses named in this new charter; John Cole, Richard Myle, Llewelyn Burghuli, Thomas Goldsmyth, Thomas Hunt, Phillip Gerald, Edmond Pycard, David Davowe, William Bennett, William Gerald, John Huggin, Benedict Wynter, * - t - John * This business might have been settled with infinitely less trouble, by the toss of a halfpenny, # A. D., 1447. j. Dugd, Bar. vol. 1, p. 165. § 1448. ,-- HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE, 171 John Burghull clerk, Thomas Fi tzdavid, Richard Gerald, J ohn Brady, w alter Scull, Thomas Baker, John Sherbury, William More, John Havard senior, John Pecke, . Howel Oistres, John Byrre, Llewelyn Fitzjohn, the sons of Llewelyn Draper, John. Burghull, esq. John Havard junior, Lewis Fitzhowel, John Burghull Fourber, Edmund Porter, John Radynor, Richard Baker, Myles Wanter, W illiam Skulle, John-Hunt, Myles Wanter Salser, John Matthew, John James, John Slyngarth, John Porter, John Gerald, Myles Porter, Roger Porter, J ohn Powle, John Gaggowe, Walter Huggin, Hugh Dilwyn, John Baker, Roger Huggyn, John Botte, Griffin Hayledyke, Walter Fitztrahaern, Thomas Mortimer, John Glover, John Kewe, Tho- mas Oliver, William Shethe, John Smith, Phillip Oliver, Sampson Paynott, Matthew Porter, John Paynott, Agnes Wanter, Cecilia Gunter, Margaret Bennett, John Pierrepoint senior, John Pierrepoint junior, Agnes Baker, John Mulsander, John Dyer and Mahel Drencher, “whom we esſeem to be English people, to them and their heirs being English, both upon the part of their father and mother "* the town was governed by this charter until the ninth of king Henry the eighth. To the Welsh tenants and resiants within the honour, this, duke of Buckingham. was an implacable-tyrant, for he burdened them with very heavy taxes and unusual impositions; his bailiffs distrained the cattle of the farmers upon every trivial occa- -sion, using the greatest severity in the exercise of their power, and commonly appraising and selling their property at low rates, to answer the exacted debts. The freeholders who lived within the lordships were called upon to exhibit the title deeds of their estates, or otherwise to submit to the arbitrary disposition of their lord, and many were thus ruined through the mere terror of unequal litigation, but still even in these worst of times, some few were found who had sufficient fortitude to resist oppression, among these were Thomas ap Jenkin Madoc of Llanfrynach, the ancestor of the late family of Thomas of Slwch, and Evan ap Phillip Howel of thesame; both of whom refused topay either homage or custom for their land, or to acknow- ledge any other lord than the king of England: Evan, upon refusal, was arrested at the duke's suit, and imprisoned in the gaol of Gloucester, where he remained three years before he obtained even a trial; at length his cause was heard, and he cast his , - w noble some of them I suspect are translations of their trades into English, as John Baker for Sion bo- * His grace was mistaken if he thought so; some of these persons were Welsh, not only by their parents, but they were also descended from the old inhabitants of Breconshire, several of the names are clearly disguised, Thomas Fitz Lavid, John Byrre Lewis Fitzhowel, and Walter Fitztra- haern, for Thomas ap David, Sion bir or the short, Lewis ap Hywel and Gwalter ap Trahaern, and bydd, or the baker; John Dyer for Sion Hyw-wr, or the dyer, &c. the duke's intentions however are evident, yet how their children and descen- dants thereafter to be born in Wales could be English both by father and mother is ‘Ilot £Q. clear. - ... • Z2 172 HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE, noble adversary; thereby establishing the manorial rights of his estate, and exempt. ing it from all homage, suit and service and the payment of any taxes, except to the crown. During his confinement, his wife built a mill upon his estate, called Welin Wach, which is now surrounded by a few houses called V elindre, or Milton': but the duke of Buckingham, though a bad master, was a good subject; during the multitude of troubles which weighed down the virtuous though imbecile Henry the sixth, he was the warmest friend and supporter of that persecuted monarch. In the first battle with the Yorkists at Saint Alban's he lost his son and was himself wounded, and finally at Northampton, where the king was made a prisoner,” he fellº à sacrifice to the exertions of his loyalty, and was buried, as some historians Say, in the Gray Friars at Northampton: he died possessed of the castles, manors and - dominions of Brecknock and Huntingdon of the manor of Jonesfield, or Johnsfield, now called Chancefield, the dominion of Talgarth, and also the lordship of Welsh: Penkelly. In the early part of this reign died Edmund the last Mortimer earl of March, he was possessed of the cantred of Buallt, with its castle, the lordship of Melenydd Radnor,Tal-y-van forest, the castle and lordship of Clifford, the lordship of Glazbury, the borough and lordship of Ewyas Lacy, the castle, lordship and forest of Dinas, the castle, lordship and borough of Blänllyfni, and the castle, lordship and borough of Usk, all of which now devolved to Richard earl of Cambridge, who had married his sister Anne, upon whose attainder, upon his being implicated in Jack Cade's insurrection, these possessions again became vested in the crown. The last earl of March, a short time before his death granted an annuity of one hundred pounds per annum to Sir John Talbot, who was of his household chargeable upon his lord- ships of Dinas, Talgarth, Blänllyfni, and other estates in Brecknock. -- Henry, the son of Humphrey earl of Stafford, (who was slain in the first battle of St. Alban’s) by Mary his wife, daughter and coheir to Edmund duke of Somerset, succeeded his grandfather as duke of Buckingham, and to all his other honours and titles, but being a minor and a ward of government, he was with his brother Hum- phrey put under the care of Anne dutchess of Exeter, the king's sister, who had an assignment of five hundred marks per annum for their maintenance, charged upon the lordships of Brecknock, Newport, Wentllwch or Gwentllwg, Hay and Hunting- don; during this minority, the stewardship of the castle and lordship of Brecknock, and of all other castles in Wales belonging to the late duke of Buckingham, was given to Sir William Herbert, the first earl of Pembroke of that name, who during the reign of Edward the fourth had a grant of the lordships of Crickhowel and . . . . . . . . . . . . . - . . . Tretower • Tenth of July, 1460, .-- - HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE, - 173 Tretower, which upon the marriage of his grand daughter Elizabeth with Charles earl of Worcester became the property of that family, and afterwards of the dukes of Beaufort, with whom they still continue. Henry, upon his coming of age and doing homage, had livery of his honours and estates. During the greater part of the reign of Edward the fourth, he lived in retirement within his native walls of Brecknock : Stowe says, that immediately upon the death of this monarch, he offered his services to Richard duke of Gloucester, and suggested to him the plan of his future great- ness; for which purpose he sent to him a confidential servant of the name of Pershall, to communicate a proposal of his assistance, accompanied with one thousand good fellows of his dependants, if the duke of Gloucester wished it; what answer was given to this message does not appear, probably affairs were not then sufficiently ripe for placing Richard on the throne, though the two friends never afterwards lost sight of the project. . . . . . Upon the trial of George duke of Clarence, the duke of Buckingham presided as Hord high steward, and soon after the decease of Edward, he became conspicuous in the stage of public life, zealously supporting the pretensions of Gloucester to the º crown. The lamentable uncertainty which overshadows the transactions of these times, marked only by furious dissensions and party violence, when no cotemporary historian existed, or at least dared to write impartially upon the subject, leaves pos- terity greatly in the dark as to the real character of persons and the events of this period. The life of king Edward the fifth, has indeed been elegantly and diffusely written by Sir Thomas More, who also began but never finished the history of his successor: of this author the learned Vossius says “ut fuse persequitur quibus sceleribus ille ad regnum pervenerit, ita quomodo id gesserit non-exponit nec eå parte quam habemus, ultimam manum accepit:-praeterea elegantia Latini sermonis ab aliis hujusce viri operibus longe vincitur.” That Sir Thomas had every oppor- tunity of inquiring and making himself thoroughly acquainted with every circum- stance he describes, cannot be doubted, and we naturally look for accuracy to one who may almost be considered as an eye-witness of the events, for though he was too young to preserve the actual remembrance, he must necessarily have heard them talked over in his youth, with all the various comments of the day, and we may readily suppose that he made his own reflections upon the subject. Upon his authority then, most of our later writers have described and expatiated upon the cruelties of Richard; hence we have been accustomed to regard him as an odious unrelenting tyrant, equally deformed in body and in mind. That he was bloody, violent and ambitious, we have too many reasons to induce us to believe, but still there is room to suspect much exaggeration, when we recollect that his biographer . WàS. 174. HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE, was the pupil of Morton and the favorite of Henry. “Audi alteram partem,” though it often creates difficulties and raises doubts, is yet upon the whole a very reasonable requisition, and more especially in this case, as there are not wanting those who have appreciated him very differently; “his memory (says Dr. Fuller) has met with a modern pen, who has not only purged but praised it to the very height:” he has indeed met with a very strenuous advocate in Mr. Buck: zealous . for the house of York and for the honour of that monarch, in whose cause his grandsire lost his head, he has professedly undertaken the defence of Richard, and even where he cannot excuse, he labours to extenuate his guilt. Mr. Carte equ- ally disbelieves the account of his bodily deformity, and the charges of inordinate cruelty brought against him, and the ingenious author of “historic doubts” on that reign strongly supports the arguments of Mr. Buck, insinuating that many of the crimes imputed to that prince, are to be charged to the malevolence and rancour of - the Lancastrian party, rather than to any real demerit of his own, but none of his apologists ean deny that he deposed his nephew, and that he was not over scrupu- Hous as to the means by which it was effected, though they are unwilling to admit the charge of his having murdered one or both of the sons of Edward. The duke of Buckingham appears to have been his confidential agent and chief adviser in all his measures; a congeniality of temper first recommended them to each other, and it is to be feared that many a bloody scene was the result of the coalition. Rivers, Hastings, Grey and Vaughan all fell a sacrifice without a trial, and without justice; who can apologize for these murders? Carte will answer that the lord of Brecknock was the instigator and promoter of them; but will this acquit the principal of his share of the guilt - In reward for his unworthy, though effectual services, Buckingham not only re- ceived large sums of money, but was invested with several lucrative and honoura- ble employments; he was constituted governor of all the king's castles in Wales, and steward of all the royal manors in the counties of Salop and Hereford, chief justice and chamberlain of North and South Wales,” and lord high constable of England; he was also further - promised a restitution of all those lands which be- longed to the Bohuns earls of Hereford, and to which as next in blood, he claimed an hereditary right, though by an act of parliament passed soon after the deposition of the late king Henry they were vested in the crown: thus royally endowed Buckingham would have been the richest as well as most powerful nobleman in England, but in truth, not so willed Richard.—“It all was farce and nothing more.” *: That wary politician too well knew the principles of his coadjutor not to see the - - ... • necessity .# F or a list of the grants from the crown to this duke, see Buck's life of R. 3, : : ** - \ HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE, - 175 necessity of restraining him in time; he knew Buckingham to be haughty, violent and avaricious, a great dissembler, and of consummate art, that he was at heart a Lancastrian, and consequently an inveterate enemy to the succession in the house of York, which, interested motives alone had induced him to support, and though from similar motives he himself had been induced to accept of his services, it was very far from his intention to raise him to the condition of a rival; having there- fore now attained the high obj ect of his ambition, and fully secured (as he thought) the reins of government, he threw off the mask, and treated his hitherto fast friend and supporter with superciliousness. The duke ill brooking the ingratitude of a man whom at the expence of all that was good and honourable, and perhaps the sacrifice of his own peace of mind, he had thus greatly served, instantly turned all his thoughts to vengeance, and became as eager to dethrone as he had been studious to exalt him: thus resolved, he withdrew in deep discontefit from court, and shut himself up in his castle of Brecknock, where remote from public observation, he indulged his busy thoughts in projects to effect his purpose, a fit instrument for which he discovered in a pri- soner whom Richard in the plenitude of his confidence had committed to his charge; this prisoner was no other than the well known John Morton Bishop of Ely, an able and artful politician, originally a zealous Lancastrian, but afterwards (having been pardoned) an equally strenuous adherent of the family of Edward, and consequently an object of suspicion to the jealous Richard, who thought him too dangerous a man to be entrusted to the care of an ordinary gaoler, Stowe” as well as Speed has preserved at considerable length the conversation which passed between the duke and the bishop in the castle of Brecon on this occa- sion; the former says, Morton soon perceived that Buckin gham, 6% though he began to praise and boast the king, and shewed how much profit the realme should take By his raigne” yet at heart entertained an inveterate animosity against him, and was prepared for any measure that might be proposed to humble him, but in order to be satisfied beyond all doubts as to the duke's real sentiments on the subject, he - f * I trust it will be unnecessary to apologize for this long extract from Stowe, which has been slightly passed over by modern historians, it de- velopes most clearly the character of the parties, and to the inhabitants of Brecon, to whom Ely Tower[see the vignette in #he title-page to this volume) is a familiar object, it becomes for that and other reasons more peculiarly interesting; the conver. sation as related is extremely plausible, and only one difficulty remains, which is, to account for the channel by which this information is conveyed to us; it may indeed be said that the bishop of Ely minuted down the substance of the conference, but he would hardly have preserved some of the sentiments here detailed, certainly not the words in which they are recorded, and unfortunately neither of the chronicles I have mentioned con- descend to give us their authority. It must how. ever be observed that beth of them lived not long after the time when the conversation is supposed to have passed. . . - 176 HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. #. . . he very artfully observed that it would be folly in him to dissemble,for that he was certain, neither his grace or the nation would believe him, if he affected a friend. ship for Richard; I could have wished (added he] king Henry's son, and not king Edward had the crown, but after that God had ordered that he should lose it, I was neversomad as tostrive with a dead man against a quicke, so ibecame king Edward's faithful chaplain, and glad should I have been had his child succeeded him, but if the secret judgement of God hath otherwise provided, I purpose not to contend or labour to set up him whom God pulleth down, and as for the late protector and now king—But I have said too much, I will no longer intermeddle with the affairs of this world, but retire to my books and my beads. This abrupt con- clusion stimulated the duke's curiosity so much, that he encouraged the bishop to proceed: he told him he need not fear the discovery of his sentiments, that what- ever he said (he might confide in him) should be concealed if he chose it, that he wished for his advice and counsel, which he said was the only reason why he ap- plied to the king to place him under his custody, where he might reckon himself at home.--The prelate “right humblie,” thanked his grace and proceeded, Ingood faith my lord I love not to talk much about princes 3S a thing not at all out of peril, even though my words may be innocent, because they may not be taken as I mean them, but as the prince chuses to construe them; I often think of that fable of AEsop, in which the lion is said to have caused a proclamation to be made that no horned beast should remain in a certain wood upon pain of death, npon which one of his subjects that had a bunch of flesh upon his forehead fled from thence as fast as he could, but being met by a fox who asked him whither so fast; the affighte animal answered he neither knew or cared, and immediately informed him of the proclamation, but you fool says the fox yours is not a horn, you have nothing like a horn on your head, that I very well know replied the other, but if the lion insist upon it it is a horn, where am I then? The duke laughed at this tale and said, my lord I warrant you neither the lion or the boar shall pick out any matter out of anything here spoken, for it shall never come to their ears. In good faith (replied the bishop) the thing I was about to say, taken well, (as afore God I mean it) would deserve thanks, but being misunderstood might produce me little good and you less, here he paused again, the duke desired him to proceed; well then (says Morton) as for the late protector, since he is king and in possession of the crown, I do not mean to dispute his title, but for the welfare of the nation, over whom he governs, of which I am a poor and humble member, I could have wished that to those abilities which he certainly possesses, and which are far above my praise, it had pleased God to have added those which peculiarily distinguish your HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE, 177 your grace, and here he again broke off abruptly, but being encouraged to go On and - speak out the whole of his mind, with an assurance that whatever he said should be kept as secret asif related to the deaf and dumb, with a hint that the duke perceived his prisoner was meditating some project in his favour, Morton was prevailed upon apparently to disclose the whole of his designs, especially as he knew that the duke was “desireous to be magnified,” and he saw clearly that at heart he entertained an inveterate hatred to Richard, he therefore (as the chronicle says) “opened his stomach from the bottom,” at the same time mixing a little more flattery to sweeten the dose, and proceeded; my singular good lord, sith the time of my captivitie which being in your Grace's custody, I may rather call it a libertie than a straight imprisonment, in avoyding of idleness the mother of all vices, in reading books and ancient pamphlets I have found this sentence written; that no man is born free and 'at libertie of himself onely; for one part of his duty he oweth to his parents, another part to his friends and kinsfolks, but the native country in which he first tasted this pleasant and flattering world demandeth a debt not to be forgotten; which saying causeth me to consider in what case this realme, my native country now standeth, and in what estate and assurance before this time it hath continued, what governour wee now have and what ruler wee might have, for I plainly perceive (the realme being in this case) must needs decay and be brought to confusion; but one hope I have, ie that is, when I consider your noble personage, your justice and indifferenc your fervent zeal and ardeet love towards your natural country, and in like manner the love of your country towards you, the greatlearning, pregnant wit and eloquence which so much doth abound in your person, I must needs think this realme fortu- nate which hath such a prince in store, meete and apt to bee governour but on the other side when I call to memorie the good qualities of the late protector and now called king, so violated by tyranny, so altered by usurped authoritie, so clouded by blind ambition, I must needs say he is neither meete to be king of so noble a realme mor so famous a realme meet to be governed by such a tyrant; was not his first enterprize to obtaine the crown begun by the murther of divers noble personages 2 Did he not secondly proceede against his own naturall mother declaring her openly to be a woman given to carnale affection and dissolute living, declaring furthermore his two brethren and two nephews to be bastards and born in adultry? Yet, not contented after he had obtained the garland, he caused the two poor innocents his nephewes committed to him to be shamefully murthered; the blood of which two dittle babes do daily cry to God from the earth for vengeance: what surety shall be in this realme to any person for life or goods under such a cruell prince which regardeth A a 178 HłSTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. regardeth not the destruction of his owne bloode and then the less the losse of others? But now to conclude what I mean toward your noble person, I say and affirme it if you love Cod, your linage or your native countrey, you must yourself, take upon you the crowne of this realme both for the maintenance of the honour of the same, as also for the deliverance of your naturall countrymen from the bondage of such a tyrant, and if yourselfe will refuse to take upon you the crowne of this realme I adjure you by the faith that you owe to God to devise some way how this. realme may be brought to some convenient regiment under some good governour. The duke sighed, and here the conversation ended on this day, on the morrow how- ever he sent for the bishop, who had now discovered so much of his sentiments that in return, Buckingham thought he might venture to disclose his own, but if the prelate was artful in his mode of sounding his keeper's private opinions, it must be allowed the duke was equally a master of dissimulation, and laboured hard to excuse or apologize for the part he had acted on the political theatre: he begins. with complimenting his prisoner on his abilities, and his love for his country;. and adds, sith at your last communication you have disclosed the secrets of your heart, touching the new usurper of the crown, and also have a little touched the advancement of the two houses of York and Lancaster, I shall likewise declare, to you my privy intents and secret cogitations and to beginne; when king Edward. was deceased I then began to study and with deliberation to ponder in what manner. this realme should be governed, I persuaded with myself to take part with the duke of Gloucester, whome I thought to be as clean without dissimulation, as. tractable without injury, and so by my means hee was made protector both of the king and realme, which authority being once gotten hee never ceased privily to. require me and other kords as well spirituall as temporall that he might take upon. him the crowne till the prince came to the age of four and twenty, and were able, to governe the realme as a sufficient king, which thinge when hee saw mee some- what sticke at, he then brought in instruments autenticke doctors, proctors and, notaries of the law with depositions of divers witnesses testifying king Edward's, children to be bastards, which deposition then I thought to be as true as now Iknow them to be fained: when the said depositions were before us read and diligently, - - explained hee stood up bare headed, saying, well” my lords even as I and you. • - would #. This account: given. by. the duke of Bucking-. ham is directly contradictory to that recorded by historians; according to all or most of those who have written upon the transactions of this day, the bastardy of Edward's children, though privately concerted between Richard and Buckingham, was first mentioned in public by the latter, and Rich- ard so far from claiming the crown, as above as- serted (according to a plan settled by himself and his friends) affected to refuse it, and it was not tilt; after Buckingham had threatened to place some other person on the throne, that (as related by. Shaspeare. HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. 179 would that my nephewes should have no wrong, doe mee nothing but right;for these witnesses and sayings of famous doctors be true, for I am the only indubitable heyre to Richard Plantagenet duke of York, adjudged to be the very heyre to the crowne of this realme by authoritie of parliament. Which things so by learned men to us for verity declared, caused mee and others to take him for our lawfull and undoubted prince and soverigne lord, and so again by my ayd he of a protector was made a king, but when he was once crowned king and in full possession of the realme he cast away his old conditions; for when I myself sued to him for my part of the earl of Hereford's lands, which his brother king Edward wrongfully detained from mee, and also required to have the office of the high constableship of England as divers of my noble ancestors before this time have had and in long descent continued, in this my first suit he did not onely delay mee and afterwards deny” mee but gave ‘mee such unkinde words as though I had never furthered him; all this I suffered • . . . - patiently To Brecknock, while my fearful head is on. . . - R. III, Act 4, Scene 2. Some historians also attribute the breach between him and Richard, to Richard's refusal to restore him a moiety of the Bohun estate, and if Shaks- peare be correct, this was the cause that drove him to Brecknock, and not the shock which his feel. ings received on hearing of the two poor innocents; on the other hand it is clear that a bill of livery was made to him of the lands of the late Hum. Shakspeare) he complied and thus addressed the patriotic duke, and his followers. “ Cousin of Buckingham and Sage grave men! Since you will buckle fortune on my back, To bear her burden whether I will or no; J must have patience to endure the load, But if black scandal or foul faced reproach Attend the sequel of your imposition, Your mere inforcement shall acquit me * From all the impure blots and stains thereof, For God he knows and you may partly see ‘How far I am from the desire of this.” - ", R. III, Act 3, Scene 7. * This is agreeably to Shakspeare's description of the rupture between these two bad men. Buckingham. “My lord I. claim my gift, my due by promise, For which your honour and your faith is pawned, of England, Dugd. Bar...vol. 1, p. 168. Yet it is by no means improbable that delays were invented and obstacles thrown in the way of his taking poss session of this property; so that he was never able to avail himself of these instruments, nor perhaps was it intended he should be benefited by them; phrey de Bohun and a grant of the constableship The earldom of Hereford. - King Richard. Stanley look to your wife.- Buck. I am thus bold to putyour grace in mind Of what you promised me. - * . R. Rich. What's o'clock? I am not in the giving vein to day. Buck. Why then resolve me whether you will or no 2 R. Rich. Thou troublest me, I am not in the vein - - [Erit Richard. Buck. Is it even so? repays he my deep service With such contempt? made I him king for this? *Oh let me think on Hastings, and be gone the first of them is dated the 13th of July, 1483, and it appears by a proclamation in Rymer's Faedera, tom. Iz, p. 204, that he was executed before the 23d of October, in the same year, Buck hints that one cause of offence given to Richard by the duke was, the right by which he claimed the Bohun honours. “ The earldom of Hereford, says the king, was the inheritance of Henry the fourth, who was also king of England, (though by tort and usurpation) and will you, my lord of Buckingham, claim to be heir of Henry the fourth You may then haply assume his spirits and †ay claim to the crown by the same title.” Buck’s life of R. 3, . 2 A a 1so HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. patiently, but when I was informed of the death of the two young innocents, Oh. Lord my heart inwardly grudged, insomuch that I abhorred the sight of him; I tooke my leave of the court and returned to Brecknock, but in my journey as £ returned I had divers imaginations how to deprive this unnaturall uncle. First I fantasied that if I list to take upon me the crowne, now was the way made plaine and occasion given, for I saw he was disdained of the lords temporall and accursed. of the lords spirituall; after divers cogitations as I rode between Worcester and Bridgenorth,” I encountered the comtesse of Richmond, (now wife to the lord Stanley) which is the very daughter and sole heyre to John duke of Somerset, my grandfather's elder brother, so that shee and her sonne the earl of Richmond bee both between mee to enter into the gate of majesty royall and getting of the crowne;+ I then began to dispute with myself whether I were best to take it upon mee by the election of the nobilitie and communaltie or to take it by power: thus standing in a wavering ambiguity, I considered first the office duty and paine of a king which surely I think no mortall man can justly and truly observe, except hee be appointed by God as king David was, and further I remembered that if I once took on mee the governance of the realme, the daughters of king Edward and their allies (being both for his sake much beloved) and also for the great injurie done to them much pittied would never cease to bark at the one side of me; Sembably my cousin, the earl of Richmond, his aydes and kinsfolks will surely attempt either to bite or pierce mee on the other side, so that my life and rule should ever hang unquiet in doubt of death or deposition, and if the said two linages of York and Lancaster should joymein one against mee, then were I surely matched; wherefore I have clearly determined utterly to relinquish all imaginations concerning the obtaining of the crowne; for as I told you the comtesse of Richmond on my return! from the new named King, meeting mee prayed me first for kindred sake, secondly, for the love I bare to my grandfather duke Humphrey, which was sworn brother to . her father to move the king to be good to her sonne Henry earle of Richmond, and, to licence him with his favour to returne again into England, and if it were his plea-... " sure so to doe, shee promised her some should marry one of king Edward's daughters. at the appointment of the king without any thing demanded for the said espousalls but only the king's favour, which request Isoon overpassed and departed, but after, in my lodging I called to my memory more of that matter, I am bent that the earl of Richmond heyre to the house of Lancaster, shall take to wife the lady Elizabeth - - - - t - eldest * Buckingham had possessions in Shropshire, perhaps. however he met the countess of Rich- atherwise he deviated from his ‘direct road to mond by appointment, in that county. . . - Brecon in going to Bridgenorth from Worcester, How conscientious ! s - HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE, 181 eldest daughter to king Edward, by which marriage both the houses of York and Lancaster may be united in one.” This was precisely what the bishop was driving at, all this time, though at first he was cautious of discovering his intentions; after several further consultations therefore, it was determined that the countess of Richmond should be made acquainted with their design; of raising her son to the throne which was principally effected by the agency of Reginald de Bray, one of her domestics, and doctor Lewis a physician who attended her as well as the gueen dowager, and whose visits for that reason passed without suspicion. **, Morton having accomplished this important point, took his leave of Bucking- ham, and much against his grace's inclination, found the means of escaping into Flanders, where he justly conceived his presence would be more serviceable to the: cause than his stay in England. Now, it was that the report of the young princes having been murdered in the tower was industriously published and circulated by the agents and partizans of Buckingham, though the rumour had been propagated (as has been just seen) before he quitted the court, of such a foul transaction having happened. The friends of Richard say, this falsehood was spread abroad merely toº answer the purposes of the faction, who could have no pretence to setting Rich- mond upon the throne while either of the children of Edward was living, and therefore to answer the double purpose of calumniating the present king, and pav- ing the way for his successor, they charged him with the atrocious crime of havings procured the assassination of his nephews: certain it is, that we have nothing like decisive evidence of the fact either way. The Croyland continuator gives a kind. of hint, that some foul play befell them, though he by no means asserts it positive- ly,t “vulgatum est regis Edwardi pueros quo genere interitus ignoratur, decessisse in fata.” Polydore Virgil (though no great degree of credit is attached to his au- thority as an historian) mentions another report, that the princes had escaped and were alive in foreign parts“ In vulgus fama valuit, filios Edwardi Regis aliqua ter- Farum parte migrasse atque ita superstites esse,” others again assert that they were actually stifled between two feather beds, by Tyrrel, Dighton and Forest, - (whom Speed calls “big broad square knaves”) and rest their evidence on a sup- posed confession of Sir James Tyrrel, who was said to have been also a principal in the business. Tyrrel was certainly a favourite with Richard, who entrusted him with several offices of honour and emolument: he was made steward of the lordships of Llandovery, Llantrissent, Newport and Gwentilwg, and governor of - - f - - Glamorganshire ; * All the substance and much of the quaintness of the conversation is here preserved; but the whoſe , -efit as related by the chroniclers is tedious. - Y - s f Gale's hist. Angl. Scrip. v. 1, p. 568. * 482 HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. Glamorganshire;” as to his confession we can scarcely believe it possible that hemade it during the life of his patron, and if he did it afterwards, it is very extraordinary, as Carte pertinently observes, that Henry should not only have pardoned, but even patronized a self convicted murderer; for he made him governor of Guisnes, and sent him ambassador to the emperor Maximilian. In the declaration of Perkin Warbeck, he is particularly noticed as being in the confidence of Henry, and though he was afterwards executed upon suspicion of high treason, as impli- cated in the affair of the earl of Suffolk, yet as Mr. Carte says, this did not happen antil after an interval of ten years, and his son was almost immediately restored in blood by a special act of parliament, passed upon the requisition of Henry. Bighton is also said to have confessed a participation in the guilt, yet it does not appear that he was either punished or prosecuted : these are circumstances which plainly shew that Henry, though he countenanced these reports unfavourable to the memory of his predecessor, was afraid to institute such a strict inquiry as must ‘have brought truth to light; indeed we have every reason to believe that he him- self did not give credit to this tale: that Richard has much to answer for, there can be no doubt, and the time will assuredly come, when he will be truly judged at the great tribunal of eternity, and rewarded according to his work; until that awful and solemn day, let no man decidedly condemn him, as the perpetrator of this iniquitous and foul transaction. Carte closes his arguments with a comparative. eulogium on the character of Richard, and an assertion of his belief, that Perkin Warbeek was the real duke of York; to this opinion I beg leave to add my firm, though perhaps insignificant assent, there are so many circumstances in support of it, exclusive of those mentioned in Walpole's historic doubts, that I am astonished the world should have been so generally misled upon this question. The evidence of Sir Robert Clifford who was sent over to the dutchess of Burgundy, and who wrote back that he was as satisfied, that the person afterwards called Perkin War- beck was the duke of York, as he was of his existence, that he knew him by private marks on his person, and from anecdotes related by him of circumstances which passed in the English court during his infancy, the behaviour of Henry and his partizans, who first spread a report (a report which in spite of its absurdity, has been countenanced and propagated by some of our ablest and latest historians) that the dutchess of Burgundy had informed him of these private events, of events which passed after she had quitted Englandſ though we learn that when Perkin Warbeck was taken prisoner, the king and his advisers made the young man declare that he was schooled and taught English by a John Walter, mayor of e - Çork; * Buck's hist, v. 1, p. 552. HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE, 183 Cork ; * the conduct of the victor who treated him as a cat does a captive mouse, parading him up and down twice or thrice through the streets of London, while he peeped at him through a window, at the same time that he never ventured a personal interview with him, or dared to confront him. with his mother or sister, both then living and at court, all these and many other circumstances which could, be mentioned, are strong proofs in confirmation of Carte's judgement. The finding of human bones in 1673 in the tower of London, in that place where nei- ther Henry the seventh, (who was so anxious at one time to discover them, nor those who were said to have deposited them were successful in their search, (though this circumstance hastily considered, established the report of the murder) proves too much, unless it be admitted, as Humet very Oddly insinuates, that in the tower, no boys but those who are nearly related to the crown can be: exposed to a violent death!!! - - To return to the conspiracy of Buckingham,_Morton having departed to confer with Richmond on the continent, and planned the means of a descent on England; the duke exerted all his energy to raise an insurrection at home and by the assist- ance of Reginald Bray had so far succeeded that a day was actually fixed for a general rising in several of the English counties. Richard was too vigilant to be. ignorant of what was going on; he saw a conspiracy was formed against him, and he spared no pains to make himself acquainted with the persons of the conspirators. in order to divide and counteract their force. It was immediately obvious that Buckingham was at the head of it, and he too late lamented the extensive powers. he had intrusted to him in the Marches, but the escape of Morton, whose deep laid policy he dreaded, afforded him still more uneasiness. - “Morton with Riehmond touches me more near, Than Buckingham and his rash levied numbers.” Rich. 3rd. The duke was still at Brecknock, and as no overt act of treason; or at least of violence had been yet committed, the king in the most pressing manner invited his return to court, and to intreaties, added the warmest expressions of regard; finding: - * - he * Lord Verulam in his life of Henry the se- wenth, speaking of the confession.of-Perkin War- beck, observes “he was diligently examined, and after his confession taken, an extract was made of such parts of them as were thoughi fit to be divulged, which was printed and dispersed abroad; wherein. the king did himself no right: for as there was a Jaboured tale of particulars of Perkin's father, mo- ther, grandsire, grandmother, uncles and cousins. by names and sirnames, and from what places he travelled up and down, so there was little orº nothing to purpose concerning his designs, or any, practices, that had been held with him nor the duchess of Burgundy herself (that all the world did take knowledge of as the person that had put life. and being into the whole business) so much as named, or pointed at.” - - # Appendix to vol. 3, Hist. Eng. 459,860s. is, HISTORY or BRECKNOCKSHIRE, he could not entrap him by fair means he in peremptory terms commanded his attendance, which were equally disregarded. in the mean time spies were every where set to watch his motions. Directions were sent to Sir Thomas Waughan, son of the late Sir Roger Vaughan of Tretower,” (whose influence in the neighbourhood was considerable) to raise the country and attack his castle, the moment he stirred from Brecknock, holding out as an allurement, the riches it contained; Sir T homas with the assistance of his brothers and relations executed his commission with great spirit, and kept a strict look out in the interior of the country, while Sir Humphrey Stafford was equally alert in destroying the bridges and occupying the passes on the side of England; the duke however having mustered his dependants, and pub- lished a flaming declaration against Richard, proceeded with a numerous but disaf- fected and ill appointed army to join his Western friends at Salisbury, taking the route of Gloucester; but having reached the banks of the Severn, a most tremendous flood had rendered the river impassable and laid a fatal embargo upon his further progress; thus delayed, his troops became dissatisfied for want of pay and the con- veniences of living, and deserted in such numbers that he was left nearly alone. The Croyland continuator, and upon his authority Carte, say, that he now retired with a few confidential friends to the house of Sir Walter Devereux, lord Ferrers at Weobley; but how is this to be reconciled to the steady adherence of that nobleman to the cause of Richard, under whose banners he fought and fell in the battle of Bosworth? Can it be supposed for a moment that the duke could have retired for protection to that very house which his grandfather had plundered by royal permis- sion in the reign of Henry the sixth, in consequence of his attachment to the house of York? The above historians however assert this, and add that the bishop of Ely was of the party, yet for thereasons already given, as well as the general concurrence of historians, I conceive there ean be no doubt that the fact was otherwise, and that his last retreat was to the house of one Bannister, who had formerly been his servant and now resided in the neighbourhood of Shrewsbury ; here he thought he might remain secure till he could either join his English friends, or make his escape to Richmond on the continent; but a royal proclamation i soon shook the fidelity of his host, whose avarice could not withstand the temptation of a thousand pounds offered by Richard for the apprehension of Buckingham. To secure, as he hoped, . - - - the - - * Gale's hist. Augi. Script, vol. 1, p. 568. ./ • . # This farrago of a proclamation is most whim- wiſe in adultery,” it then proceeds in the same sically intitled “a proclamation, for the reforma- sentence or clause to accuse Sir William Norreys tion of manners;” it charges Thomas marquiss of and others of having “assembled and gadered the Dorset not only with deflowering but with devour- people together by the comfort of the grete rebeli ing maids, widows and wives, and also “ holding the late duc of Buckyngham and bushoppes of the unshampfull and mischievous woman Shore's Ely and Salesbury.” Rymer's Faed. vol.12, p. 204, HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE, 183 the money, he betrayed his master; betrayed that master whose former kindness had supported him and enriched his family; for this base action he received his deserts, though he failed of his reward; when he applied to Richard, he refused to pay him, * telling him, that he who could be unfaithful to so good a master, would be a traitor to his king if an opportunity offered.* Stowe adds, that soon after this event his eldest son became insane and died in a pigstye, his daughter was stricken with a leprosy, his second son lost the use of his limbs, his youngest son was drowned in a puddle, and Humphrey the father was convicted in his old age of murder, and only saved by his being a literate person and claiming the benefit of clergy. At what age these sons died is not mentioned, but they or one of them probably left des- cendants, who continued in Brecknock in tolerable repute till the middle of the eighteenth century; for in the Cappely cochiaid, in the priory church there, I find a tombstone to the memory of Thomas Bannister, who died in 1737, and who is said to have married Rebecca, daughter of John Crusoe, apothecary an dgranddaugh- ter of Dr. John Crusoe, theretofore chancellor of St. David's. - * * - The duke having been arrested by John Mytton, high sheriff for the county of Salop, it was first conveyed to Shrewsbury, and from thence under a strong guard to Salisbury, where the king then was; he solicited an interview with his majesty, with an intention as it is said of stabbing him, but being refused, he was immediately taken out to the market place, and there executed without a trial. His titles were attainted and his estates confiscated. Thus fell the once powerful and ambitious Buckingham, and if the proud Great can be taught any lesson, they may learn from this upon how weak and tottering a foundation, their much prized grandeur stands. “Almost he touch'd the highest point ofgreatness ! - And from that full meridian of glory, . . . He hasted to his setting;-And he fell Like some bright exhalation in the evening, And no man saw him more tº - He left by his wife Catherine, daughter of Richard Widville earl of Rivers, three sons and two daughters, Edward who afterwards was restored to his honours, Henry created earl of Wiltshire, and Humphrey who died young; Elizabeth, his eldest *This is the account of thetreatment, Bannister trayed the duke, was rewarded for this service by received from Richard, according to most histo- a grant of the manor of Ealding in Kent, part of rians, and Buck among others; but in a note to his unfortunate master's property; which grant is the life of Richard, by this latter author, it is said in part recited in this note, and the reader for its that Ralph (not Humphrey) Bannister who be- authenticity referred to K. R's.journ. - - - *- - # A. D. 1483. - - B b . #86 -- HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. daughter, married Robert Radcliffe earl of Sussex, and Anne who married first Sis: Walter Herbert, and secondly George earl of Huntingdon. Sir James Tyrrel was appointed a commissioner for his forfeited estates in Wales,”and Sir Ralph Ashton, vice-constable, with a power to try either by the examination of witnesses or other- wise, to pass sentence and to execute on the spot without noise, form of trial or appeal, al/persons suspected and guilty of high treason or who were concerned in this insur- rection; allowing him the full exercise of his discretion whenever he chose to act. under this authority, and only requiring him on such occasions to take with him a secretary to make minutes of his proceedings.t . - Soon after the establishment of Henry the seventh upon the throne,:Edward the eldest son of the late duke of Buckingham was restored to blood, his titles and estates, and upon the death of Edward Stanley earl of Derby in 1504, who in the first year of this king, was created, or rather confirmed constable of England for life, the duke was appointed to this office, though the grant does not appear in the Faedera, as all. those of his predecessors do, yet there can be no doubt but that he held this office in the latter end of Henry the seventh and in the beginning of Henry the eighth's reign; for Sir Robert Cotton in a paper in Hearne's curious discourses,Stells us, that over his castle gate at Thornbury was the following inscription, “this gate was. begun 151 1, and Anno regis Henrici octavi 2, by me Edward duke of Buckingham, earle of Hereford, Stafford and Northampton, high constable of England:” this office however expired with him, for after his death no person was ever appointed to it, and it is now scarcely known but to antiquarians. Though the confiscations of his father’s. property were immense and of course as very tempting bait to the avaricious Henry, yet his services had been so beneficial, to this monarch’s cause, and indeed, inasmuch as they had principally and primarily. produced his elevation, gratitude prompted the restoration of every thing to the son. In the last year of this reign he obtained a grant from the crown of the castle. and ville of Bronllys, the manors and lordships of Bronllys, Cantreffselyff, Penkelley. and Alexanderstone with the third part of the barony, of Penkelley, and the ad. vowsons of all the churches belonging thereto. He confirmed by charter the - * franchises, - * Faedera, tom-12, p. 205. - + If there were no other evidences remaining of quity of his hero in granting powers so extraordi- Richard's tyranny than, this bloody inquisitorial nary, says, the vice-constable was impowered to Commission, it would be sufficient to consign his proceed against the rebels, “ omni strepitu et memory to perpetual infamy;. unprecedented as futura judicii appellatione quacunque remota.”— are the words, and unlimited as, is the power in- The commission as given by Rymerin the Faedera, trusted by this document, its authenticity is un- vol. 12, p. 205 has, “sine strepitu et figura judici questionable. Buck, to conceal in part the ini- appellatione quacunque remota.” - # A.D. 1485 § Vol.2, p. 68. HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE, 187 franchises of the borough of Brecknock and considerably improved the castle, though his principal residence was at Thornbury in Gloucestershire, where by licence from king Henry the seventh, he had imparked one thousand acres of land, and began to build a stately edifice, which theshortness of his life prevented him from finish- ing. The distinguishing features of Edward duke of Buckingham were family pride and ostentation; he felt himself a duke, and indulged a high sense of rank and of his own consequence. - . . . . “He deem'd plebeians, with patrician blood. Compared, the creatures of a lower species; Mere menial hands by nature meant to serve him.” .” It is said he was weak enough to have confidence in judicial astrology and divin- ation. Upon all occasions of public shew, the utmost magnificence of expence was exhibited in his dress, and he was studious of appearing unrivalled in elegance. Upon the celebration of prince Arthur's nuptials with the lady Catherine of Spain, he appeared at court in a robe of needlework upon cloth of tissue, and trimmed with sable, valued at the enormous sum of fifteen hundred pounds, and in honour of prince Henry’s accession to the throne, he rode to the tower in a gown of goldsmith's work, “athing (says Stowe) of great riches;” but alas! this high patrician pride soon undid him, and brought him to the grave in early life, or at least in the prime of manhood, and the plebeian Wolsey triumphed over the noble Buck- ingham: some unguarded expressions uttered by the duke, at first excited the cardinal's disgust, and a trivial circumstance converted the quarrel into deadly animosity. It seems that the duke having held the bason to the king, while he was washing his hands, the cardinal came and dipped his hands also in the water; this, “ though a trifle light as air,” so offended the high spirit of Buckingham, that in contempt he threw the whole contents into his eminency's shoes: the equally haughty prelate retired in a rage, vowing “ that he would shortly sit upon his skirts;” to make a jest of this threat, his grace appeared the next day in public without any skirts to his coat, jocularly observing that he did it by way of precau- tion. Trifling as all this may seem, it sealed the duke's destruction; so danger- ous are ill timed jokes, “sapius has nugae in seria ducunt.” This nobleman being descended in the female line from Thomas of Woodstock, conceived himself by birth to be nearly allied to royalty; he is said to have declared his intenti- ons of claiming the crown, if the king died without issue, and in that case his resolution to be revenged upon Wolsey for his insolence; being also, as before observed, infected with the absurd notions of magic and judicial astrology, he was weak enough to be led away by one Hopkins a monk of Henton, who pretended to B b 2 - - inspiration iss HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. inspiration, and flattered him with the hope of one day ascending the throne of England. The pride of family and perhaps the fond idea of seeing these wild pre- diction realized, led him into certain indiscretions, which being reported to. Wolsey, were thought sufficient grounds for an impeachment; the Cardinal, therefore having upon various pretences removed his friends out of the Way, and Secured the mercenary evidence of a discarded servant of the name of Knevett, boldly accused, the duke of high treason. The king extremely jealous of all who had any preten- sions to the crown, and fully aware of the ambitious character of Buckingham, was easily induced to credit the assertion, nor could the most solemn asseverations of innocence avail him; for so deeply was the plot laid, that he was tried by his peers, found guilty and condemned.* The duke of Norfolk with a flood of tears, pro- nounced the fatal order for execution, to which the noble prisoner submitted with a manly resolution, disdaining to sue for mercy, or ask a life of which he conceived: they were unjustly about to deprive him; though he is said to have hinted that a. free unsolicited pardon, if the king would grant it, would not be unacceptable. Shakspeare makes him thus pathetically address the audience at his execution: “When I came hither. I was lord hi gh constable --> And duke of Buckingham —now poor Edward Bohun.t. Yet I am better than my base accusers, -- Who never knew what truth meant: I now seal it;: My noble father Henry duke of Buckingham. Who first raised'head against usurping Richard, - Flying for succour to his servant Bannister, Being distress'd, was by that wretch betray’d, And without trial fell: God’s peace be with him.º., Henry the seventh succeeding, truly pitying My father's loss, like a most royal prince * Restor'd me to my honours and out of ruin ; Made my name once more noble. Now his son: Henry the eighth, life, heneur, name and all, That made me happy, at one stroke has taken For ever from the world. I had my trial, - And must needs say a noble one,—which makes me A little happier than my wretched father. - j - Yeº *: A. D. 1524. - + Stephenson in one of his notes observes that linshed: Tollêt however says the duke affected to: Shakspeare was led into this mistake of the then take the name, as his ancestors did the arms, of family name of the duke of Buckingham, by Ho-- Bohun, and I am inclined to think he is correct. * * HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. 189 Yet thus far we are in one fortune;—both Fell by our servants, by those men we lov'd most. A most unnatural and faithless service l. Heaven has an end in all: yet you that hear me, This from a dying man receive for certain : Where you are liberal in loves and counsels Be sure you be not loose; those you make friends And give your hearts to, when they once perceive The least rub in your fortunes, fall away Like water from you;-never found again But where they mean to sink you. All good people Pray for me...—I must leave you—the last hour . Of my long weary life is. come upon me, Farewell! and when you would say something sad; Speak how I fell. I have done; and God forgive me.” When the emperor Maximilian heard of this execution, he severely remarked, “that a butcher's dog had ran down the finest buck in England; alluding to Wolsey's being the son of a butcher; but if we take Dr. Henry's character of this duke, he was a desperate and dangerous man, who had formed the most pernicious schemes, and was capable of the most atrocious actions, and neither the king or the cardinal could be blamed for bringing him to trial, and permitting the sentence to be executed. - ... • - The dukedom of Buckingham now became extinct; he left by his wife Alianor, daughter of Henry Percy earl of Northumberland, one son and three daughters, Elizabeth the eldest married Thomas. Howard duke of Norfolk, Catherine married - Ralph Neville earl of Westmoreland, and Mary married George Neville lord Aberga- venny, Henry (his son) was afterwards by an act of Parliament restored in blood, and to the barony of Stafford only. Upon the death of Henry (the fifth baron of that name) without issue, the title of baron and baroness of Stafford was conferred. in the reign. of Charles the second, on Sir William Howard knight of the Bath, and Mary Stafford, his wife, only sister of the last peer of that name, and he heirs, male of their bodies, but they likewise dying without children, the title became extinct. The last duke of Buckingham and lord of Brecknock, of whose life I - have given the fullestº account I. have been able to collect, WaS; executed. May, 17º 1521 and was buried at the church of Austin Friars in London. * . . - The * The pedigree of this nobleman and his predecessors, lords of Brecon will be seen in th € apa pendix, No. X., - - . . . . * . 190 HiSTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE, The great lordship of Brecknock” with the borough, castles, manors and de- pendencies now merged º in the crown, but the burgesses of Brecknock were permitted to retain their ancient franchises, upon payment of their accustomed fee farm rent of one hundred and twenty pounds a year. Upon the union of Wales with England, the interests and political events of both countries became so amalgamated, that the history of one, is, generally speaking, the history of the other. Among the other lordships, marchers the little imperium in imperio of Breconshire ceased, and the lord of Brecon had from thence forward no greater authority than any other lord of a manor in England. The first steward for this lordship after it vested in the crown, was Henry earl of Worcester, who was appointed to that office for life, soon after the duke's exe- cution by king Henry the eighth. During the reign of Elizabeth, through the interest of Mrs. Blanch Parry, chief gentlewoman of her majesty's privy chamber (of whom I shall have occasion to say more, when I come to speak of the braneh of the Parry family settled in Bre- conshire) Harry Vaughan of Moccas was appointed her majesty's lieutenant for Brecon and steward of her castle and the lordships of Brecon and Dinas. This gentleman was of the Porthaml branch of the Vaughans, being a son of Watkin Vaughan of Tregunter, by Joan Parry, a daughter of Miles ap Harri or Parry of Poston in Herefordshire, the eldest brother of Mrs. Blanch Parry. Soon after the death of Elizabeth an insurrection of a very serious nature appears to have been projected, and in part executed in the county of Brecknock; though I have not been able to trace the cause of the dispute, nor is the event mentioned by any ... • historian; probably it arose from a desire of resisting the payment of the chief rents, . the strict levy of cymorth, the benevolence of the Welshmen, or else from some op- pressive acts committed by those who were appointed to collect these dues. An old Welsh song in the hand writing of one Thomas Powel, a prisoner in the cou nty. gaol of Brecknock in the year 1680, alone preserves the memory of this oc- currence. - . . . " . Grandewch • A list of the manors in Herefordshire depen- and lands held by the last duke of Buckingham, dant on the castle of Brecon, and owing suit and service to the court ofBaili-glas formerly held there, will be seen in the appendix No. XI. A further and more particular survey, made in the thirteenth of Henry the eighth, containing the whole of the possessions of the lords of the castle and manor of Brecon will appear in my second volume. From this document it appears, that the manorial rights in this county and neighbourhood were of the annual value of £806 : 15 : 0}, to which every third year was added an increased rent of £506 13s. 4d.—I am indebted to Sir Charles Morgan, bart. for permission to copy this valuable MS. which has been preserved in the evidence room at Tredegar. - HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. 191 Now hear me with attention, All ye magistrates of Breconshire, While with pleasure I praise gentlemen; Two much esteem'd 'squires, s Sprung from Moreiddig. - It is probable they’ll be members of parlia- - ment. (or knights) \ . - Grandewch arma'i'n genfog, Holl Worshippº Brecheiniog, Yn cannolyn serchogfon’ddigion, Dausgwier urddedig, A daith 'o Foreiddig, - - Hwy fyddan o’ debig marchogion. Meistr Harri Wychan, Mr. Harry Vaughan, Liefftenant perffeithlan, - A just and upright lieutenant, A’r stiward or cyfan ni wyddon, And steward paramount we know, Y Dinas yn enwog . . Particularly of Dinas A chastell Brecheiniog, - And Brecon castle, • ‘ . . . Pan aeth hi'n hai havogt niwelson. We’ve seen him in this situation in peril- - *. ous times.- . When old Bess died;. He promised full stoutly - He'd &ome and defend us like Samson; He is indeed a man, fully * Has he carried his point; - - - However troublesome andalarming the times. Fe daeth’ gwyry blaenau, When the inhabitants of the high lands, - - . . . . . . came down, - ‘. All under arms, * , - -- Bringing with them. pointed bills (or bill: hooks); - * Pan döarfu.am hen Elsbed, Fe bledoedd mor galed, Y dewe mor dewted a Samson; Yn wir yn wr, cwbl Tº . - Fe fynnodd ei feddwl, Er maint oedd y trywbla'r offi. - y gºd yn- eu harſau, A chentyn'ſ lºgau bigynon; Hwy dorren y castell,. . They said they’d pull down the castle, Nicheidwife'n heppell, That he should no longer be permitted to: . * • , keep it, . . . . . . . . . . . Nhwy tynnen o'i stafellyn hiſtlon. That they'd drag him bleeding from his } chamber. . -* , § * “Your worship” was the title by which jus- tices of the peace (an office then newly established in Wales) formerly were, and still are addressed; the Welsh poet probably did not know the mean- ing of the word, but being satisfied it was a mark of respect, he adopted it as he found it, in com- pliment to the magistrates of the county, to whom Iuded to was Wm. Vaughan; then of Trephillip;, of the Trebarried branch of the family. . f Hai havog. “Cry havoc and let loose the dogs of war.” This is precisely the meaning of the phrase in Welsh. I have used the v in preference, to shew the song is addressed. The other esquire here al- jº. that it is a corruption of the English word, if written d º • - hafog it would be something pertaining to summer. , \ HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE, Hwy ddeuthant, doiddeccant, A hyn oedd dan warrant, Hwy ladden pymtheccant nhwy wedson, - A cai n' ſyned drwa, Nhwy whaint hi'nail Droia, Oh! seſwch pawbyma’ngyfeillion. * * * * *- : * * , Fe ddaith Harri Wychan Hebarno fawr offi, A chwegwr ei human yn eofn; All Hector oedd ynte, Niftysodd am eu harſau, Fe dyrodd nhwy adreyn weigon. * Hwy weden yn llonydd, Wrth fynedi'r mynidd, Ni eithon mewn cywilydd Cristno- gion; * Pwy Wychan ywei enw? Fel tocco fab garw, Duw ercho ein cadw pawbgwirion. Medd y bardd, Mam meistr Harri, Oedd verch Miles y Parry, - Tyfeddeswych trostini glywson, Ar Scudmore ag. Ewyas, O'r Milbourn y caſas, £)n'd tyna ºr priodas Ile deithon? They came down twelve hundred in number, Of this I beg leave to assure (or warrant to) you. i - - They said they'd kill fifteen hundred And if they could but penetrate into the castle, They’d make it another Troy; - My companions be united and steady together. Harry Vaughan came With little fear, And six of his relations equally undaunted: He was another Hector, - - He cared not for their arms But sent them bootless home. They whispered to one another, As they climbed the hills, We've returned with shame my dear Chris- tians; - Waughan of whatplacedo they call this man? He's a rough one, God preserve us poorignorantmen from him. Poet—Mr. Harry's mother Was a daughter of Miles Parry, Quite a notable heiress, we’ve heard Of the lands of Scudamore and Ewyas, From the Milbourns she brought them, Isn't that the marriage from whence they came * The song then proceeds to give us more of the lieutenant's pedigree and the names of his companions in vile spelling and worse poetry; the author does not mean (however strong the likeness between Harry and Hector) to assert that seven men beat twelve hundred, but that Vaughan and his associates by the assistance they rendered to the garrison, both by their talents and their bravery, enabled them to drive the enemy back without their errand. ^*. *~, - However HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. 393 However despicable this ballad may be as a composition, it contains much curi- ous information; from it we learn, that the weapon used at this time in Wales, as well as in England, was a bill or billhook with a pike at the end. Bilwg a pig yn ei bon. | * This instrument, says Sir William Temple, gave the most ghastly and deplorable wounds, and it certainly is of a very destructive construction, but it is by no means calculated for the attack of a castle, and therefore it is not difficult to account for the assailants’ want of success; indeed they seem to have expected to obtain a vic- tory by surprize, but the governor or steward, being by some means or other apprized of their intentions, threw himself and a few select friends into the fortress, and the gates being secured, the fire of a few pieces of artillery and musquetry must have dispersed them in five minutes, and compelled them to take to their heels as fast as they could scamper; from this song likewise it appears that the English garrisons or the forces and adherents of that country, then in Brecknockshire, were computed at fifteen hundred men. • - The lordship of Brecknock remained entirely in the crown until 1617, when it was granted to Sir Francis Bacon, Sir John Daccombe and other trustees, for ninety nine years, for the use of the prince of Wales, afterwards Charles the first: this term after several assignments became vested in 1639 in Thomas Morgan of Machan, in the county of Monmouth, esquire, Robert Williams, esquire, and Robert Stafford, gentleman; the two latter in 1662 released their interest to Mr. Morgan of Machan, and in the mean time the fee was conveyed by Charles the first, in the seventh * year C c 194; HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE, year of his reign, to trustees for the use of Sir William Russel, reserving to the crown an annual fee farm rent of forty four pounds and one half penny: Sir William Russel, in the following year, parted with his interest to Phillip earl of Pembroke; from whom it was purchased in 1639 by William M91gan of Dderw.or Therwin Breconshire, esquire, whose daughter and heiress, Blanch, intermarrying with William Morgan of Tredegar, esquire, son of the above named Thomas Morgan of. Machan; brought this and other property in Brecknockshire to that family, in which it still continues. . . . f * - Builth, as well as Dinas and Blanllyfni, were alienated in the reign of James the . first; the former was purchased by Sir Edmund Sawyer, from whom by the marri-- age of his daughter, it came to Sir Thomas Williams, the paternal ancestor of the Langoed baronets, who sold it to judge Gwynne of Garth; in whose family it is at present: a moiety of Cantreff-selyff was granted by the crown about the same period, to the Williams’ of Gwernyved, who uniting with the other line, the baro- nets, Williams of Tallyn and the Lodge, possessed it until it was lately sold to- John Macnamara, esquire, whose lady being descended from the Wogans of Wiston, in Pembrokeshire, and consequently from Gwrgan ap Bleddin ap Maenarch, by a singular train of events, is now seized of part of the property her ancestors enjoyed: eight hundred years ago: the other moiety was granted by the crown in the reign- of Elizabeth, to Vaughan of Porthaml, from whom it has descended to the present earl of Ashburnham. The manor of Hay was illegally possessed in the reign of Henry the eighth by James Boyle, as part of the possessions of the priory of Here-- ford, of which it certainly never was parcel; however in the reign of James the first, Howel Gwyn of Trecastle, marrying his grand daughter and coheir Mary, obtained a grant of it as well as several possessions in the neighbourhood; from him. it descended to the Vaughans of Trebarried, whose present representative the widow of the honourable John Harley, D. D. late bishop of Hereford, now possesses it: and Penkelly after several conveyances, which will be more minutely mentioned. hereafter, became the estate of the Games’ and Jones’ of Buckland, and afterwards of the Jeffreys', from the latter of whom it was purchased by Thynne Howe Gwynne, esquire. ' [ . § - ^- * From 1600 to the present time, few events of importance passed in the county, of Brecon, which merit recording: it should seem that the politics of this country, during the times of the civil war in the reign of Charles the first, were extremely, versatile and unsteady; in the year 1645, the inhabitants of Breconshire petiti- oned” the parliament to be taken under their protection, and stated their resolution tºs * Whitlock's memoirs of English affairs during the civil wars. .. º T ſ - - i. º ºf - § . § - | § * : - º º º in § º § º º ºr/ºc/Zozrezzº º º º: º º jº ºr º º º Q) º º º º º - - ºft ji, º: º º ºº º º º º º º º: ſº º -- … º º: º º º º º º - ſº º º: º | - º º º º: º † º º E====E_2=ºº. - º º º º º º !!!) º º ºš. º : | jº IHI AY ('A S T LIE , º - ºs- - - Nº. º *= sº ==== ºn º º ºf º!!!!" º º º º º º JºAzzeſe. ////zºº/*/ Zºº, Øy 7%, ’onº //cºooº. HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. 193 J to comply with, and wholly to obey their commands, to which a committee was ordered to prepare an answer, granting their desires, accepting their submission and applauding their resolutions, and yet in three years afterwards we find the men of Breconshire becoming violent royalists; for it appears that in May 1648* colonel Horton was sent to oppose the cavaliers in this county, where it is said the whole mass of the people was against the parliament, and as soon as they were suppressed in one place, they rose in another. One of the methods here taken to distress the parliament was curious; it seems the blacksmiths in this country fled with their neighbours, their wives and children into the woods upon the appearance of the troops, having first destroyed or rendered useless their bellows, so that when a horse lost his shoe, it could not be supplied.t Lieutenant general Cromwell was upon this occasion directed to assist colonel Horton with two regiments of horse and three of foot in the reduction of South Wales, but it does not appear from any authentic document that this commander ever was in Breconshire, although he ºcertainly was in every other eounty in South Wales, excepting Radnorshire: there is indeed a common tradition that all our castles were destroyed by him: this how- ever is not proved by the authority of any historian, but is a kind of general con- clusion formed by the lower rank of people, that he was an universal castle leveller. For instance, Brecknock castle is said to have been battered and pulled down by Oliver Cromwell, whereas it appears from a MS. in the British musaeum by a Mr. Simmons, who is supposed to have been an officer in the royal army in the time of Charles the first, that the inhabitants of Brecknock very prudently destroyed the castle, as well as the walls of the town, to prevent their being saddled with the maintenance of a garrison, or becoming a temptation for a siege. The neighbour- * ing city of Hereford had too many reasons to lament their want of foresight and inattention in not adopting a similar precaution. - The success of the parliament troops in the battle of Naseby, probably directed the conduct of the Brechinians, and converted those, who at the breaking out of these commotions, were violent tories into democratic patriots: immediately after that event, Charles the first, in his flight, passed through Brecknock and slept on the night of the sixth of August, 1645, at the priory house in that town, Ś then in the possession of one of his warm friends and partizans, Herbert, afterwards Sir .* * & -- Herbert, * Rushworth's collections. * ºf From Rushworth we learn that the royal cockade worn at this day in Brecknockshire and other parts of South Wales was a blue and white ribband having the following motto. - . . . “We long to see our king.” - - ; Grose's antiquities. § Hearne's collectanea curiosa, vol. 2, p. 443. C c 2 196 HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. .** Herbert Price, though it is evident, from the road he took on entering, as well as guitting the town, that he was apprehensive of being discovered: here however he wrote a letter to his son, the prince of Wales,” then in Cornwall, or on his road from thence to Bristol; from Brecknock he went to Sir Henry Williams of Gwern- yvet, to dinner, and supped at Old Radnor on the night of the seventh. On the fifth of December, then next following, came the petition to parliament I have just mentioned, but notwithstanding this apparent submission to the will of parliament, the principal gentlemen of the country conducted themselve in those perilous days. with a good deal of art, one part of a family supporting the crown, and the others the parliament and the commonwealth. Those who were successful, notwithstand- ing the animosity always attendant on civil dissensions, seldom forgot the ties of blood, or neglected to screen a fallen relation from the extreme vengeance it of the law: this may be called duplicity or want of zeal, but it is infinitely more pardon- able than the sanguinary ferocity which characterized a late revolution, and for which the benefits supposed to be derived, if they were infinitely greater than they are, can scarcely be said to have atoned. * . - - --- . It has been seen that in 1648, the tide of popular opinion was in favor of royalty: to the change of sentiments, which afterwards prevailed, several causes contributed, Hugh Peters having been sent by Cromwell to raise a regiment in South Wales; instead of recruiting, employed his time in Swansea, in drinking and dissipation, and , fearing he might becalled to account for his negli gence and inattention; he pretended. - he had been engaged in forming, what he called, a “congregational church;t” in this he was assisted by a colonel Phillip Joness of Penywain in Llangevelach, (a parish. - in the neighbourhood of Swansea,) a zealousand active partizan of Cromwell's, who in 1666 became one of the members for the county of Brecknock, both having been then chosen for the county, and not one for the borough; he was also at that time one of his highness’s council: in conjunction with this associate and a Mr. Samson. Lort, they ventured to suggest what was afterwards called, the root and branch. scheme; this was no other than the sequestration of all ecclesiastical benefices and revenues without exception, and bringing them into one public treasury, out of which six itinerant (puritanical) ministers in every county were to be allowed one - - *. hundred - - * Clarendon's history of the rebellion. + Only four persons compounded for their es- Jeffreys of Abercynrig, esq. for £380; Lewis, tates in Brecknockshire, in consequence of their Morgan, of Llangeney, gent. for £9; and John. attachment to the royal cause, these were John Williams, of Park in Builth, for £50 : 18 : 0. Herbert, of Crickhowel, esq. for £397; John - * - - # Walker's sufferings of the clergy, vol. 1. p. 147. • $ Ancestor of the present family of Jones, of Fonmon castle, in Glamorganshires. *~- HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE, 197 hundred a year each. To establish this godly reformation, an act was obtained, intitled “an act for the propagation of the gospel in Wales;” under this law, needy and rapacious commissioners were appointed, who seized upon the property of the church, and ousted her most respectable ministers under the most trivial pretences and at the same time that they decried tythes, they enforced their payment with the utmost rigour, though no clear account could ever be procured how they were applied:* the infamous character and conduct of the inventors of this scheme, as well as the extortion and injustice with which it was attended and executed, alienated the minds of the generality of the inhabitants of Breconshire, and the dislike to the power of parliament which appeared there in 1648, was also greatly augmented by the knowledge of the harsh treatment of their captive monarch, as well as by the developement of the interested views of the popular leaders, now become evident to all thinking men; but notwithstanding this general disinclination to obey the powers of the day, such was the activity and courage of the troops em- ployed to crush the risingspirit of disaffection (as it was called) aided by the bravery and conduct, as well as the forces of a colonel Jenkini Jones or Jenkin John Howel of Llanddetty in Breconshire, that they were obliged reluctantly to submit to the government of the commonwealth, and afterwards to the us urpation of C romweli, though not without considerable struggles and frequent heart burnings, which occasionally broke out in complaints of the injuries and oppressions exercised over the country by the propagators of the gospel, and their agents and servants: a very strong memorial of this nature was presented by Mr. Edward: Williams, sheriff of Breconshire in 1659, in answer to the queries from a committee of parliament to inquire how Wales was supplied with a ministry. It is much to be lamented that this curious document is not now to be found; from several extracts from it in Walker, it appears that this truly patriotic officer reprobated in very strong terms the conduct of the commissioners appointed under the act. I have just mentioned, charging them with having ejected and dispossessed those clergymen who were most eminent for the purity of their lives, or for their literary abilities, and suffering those only to hold benefices or preferments, who were ignorant, but ready to farm the tythes, or to take small stipends from the reformers: for the boldness of his language, Mr. Williams was removed from his office, and Lewis Jones of Trebinshwm, * It is remarkable that the act for the propa- to treat of the parochial history of the parish of sation of the gospel in Wales is not to be found in Llandetty. - - - - Scobel’s collection of statutes, &c. # He was one of the descendants of the Bullens. ºf I shall have occasion to introduce this Mr. and lived at Gern-y-vigin, or Gwern-y-vigin, in the Jenkin Jones to the acquaintance of my readers parish of Trallongin, Breconshire; he will be seen. and to say a good-deal more of him when I come hereafter in the Abercamlais pedigrée." - 198 HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. son of the fighting and praying colonel Jenkin Jones, substituted in his room, but , Williams was replaced the following year,” upon the restoration of Charles the second, whose return was hailed with acclamations by his Welsh subjects, which were repaid in the same manner as he rewarded the majority of his English friends. ... In the reign of his brother and successor, who was engaged in the absurd attempt to convert and convince his subjects against their will, some of his partizans in the neighbouring counties, who were induced to support him from political or religious motives, endeavoured to avail themselves of the loyalty of the county of Brecknock, and similar efforts were made when his descendant landed in this kingdom; but they were soon convinced that we were enemies alike to arbitrary power and popu- lar outrages, that the despotism of an individual who claimed a right to dispense with the laws at his pleasure was equally odious to us, with the fluctuating and unstable government of the many, and that the inhabitants of this part of Wales. were determined to support (as I trust they ever will) that constitution to which we have now been so long habituated and endeared, and to which no portion of his majesty's subjects feel more warmly attached than we do, while it preserves the renovating and sanative power of amending its defects, (a power, neither too fre- quently or too hastily to be exercised) while it accommodates our wants, encourages our arts, our commerce and our manufactures, as far as it can be done without prejudice to the general weal of the kingdom, and while under it we enjoy rational liberty and the protection of our persons and properties, by the operation of laws, dictated by wisdom and the light of experience, and administered to all ranks and conditions in life with equal justice and impartiality. * A. D. 1660. N. B. Since the preceding pages were printed, having received information that it is: in the con- templation of government to sell the lordship of the great forest of Brecon; it has occurred to me that the district mentioned in p. 190, under the appellation of the great lordship of Brecon, has not been sufficiently or accurately described. - - e. r The lordship or manor of Brecon is that part of the county which since the erection of the castle. of Brecon, continually has been appendant and appurtenant to that fortress; it consisted of nearly the whole of the hundred of Merthyr Cynog, of that part of Llywel which is Northward of the Usk, and of the parishes of Llanspyddid, St. David's and Cantreff to the river Cynrig. The lordship of the great forest, or at least a great part of it, being acquired by the successors of Bernard Newmarch, sub-. sequent to the conquest of Wales by Edward.I. was not part of the lordship marcher, but was held. by the lords of Brecon, like all other territories in Wales, (except the marches) as a fief under the crown of England. While both these possessions continued in the same hands and under the same. tenures, they were properly called the great lordship of Brecon; but since the attainder of the last: Stafford duke of Buckingham, when they were dissevered, this term is erroneous; the lordship of the Forest, which, contains the most extensive part of the district (now held under a lease by Sir Charles. Morgan) should be called the manor of the great forest, or the great forest of Devynnock, within the county of Brecon; and the remainder which he holds in fee, when compared with this, will almost sink into the little lordship of Brecon. The boundary of the great forest commences on the North East with the fall of the river Camlais inro the Usk ; it proceeds up this latter river to its source, being in- tersected opposite Rhyd y briw, by the manor of the little forest;-it then follows the line of boundary berween Glamorganshire and Breconshire to the Taaf fawr; here it proceeds upwards to the bridge. which crosses the turnpike road from Brecon to Merthyr near the eighth mile stone, the boundary here is upon the North side of the Taaf upwards to the source of a brook called Podagau, leaving the Western van or beacon close upon the right: down this brook to the Tarell, which it crosses, and then proceeds in nearly a strait line to the source of the Camlais, the boundary to the fall, where it. commenced. * : In 10. G. i. this. manor was demised by the prince of Wales to William Morgan of Tredegar, esq. to hold for twenty-one years after the expiration of a term then in existence, at the yearly rent of 20l. 6s. 8d. This term has been frequently since renewed, and under a late grant from . the crown, Sir Charles Morgan now holds it for a certain number of years yet to come, N CHA. P.T.ER VIII. RELIGION. The Druids,-their Tenets, our Knowledge of them, from whence derived— Origin of their Name, the supposed Massacre of the Bards in the Time of Edward the First-the Introduction of Christianity into this Island-the primitive Fathers and Bishops of the British Church,-Dispute between them and the See of Rome, about the Celebration of Easter-Giraldus Cambrensis, -Patronage of the Churches of Brecknockshire on the Reformation,-State of the Establishment during the Time of Charles the First to the present Period, - - rºl NHE religion of the earliest inhabitants of Brecknockshire and its neighbour- hood as well as of Britain appears from history, tradition and the remains' now seen in this country undoubtedly to have been Druidism; such at least con- tinued to be the opinion of all writers, as well as readers of this subject, until the latter end of the last century, when the erudite Mr. Pinkerton in his most erudite inquiry into the history of Scotland” ventured to assert that Druidism was a late invention in the South of Britain, though he in the very next line tells us, that it was palpably Phoenician, and that it was taught the inhabitants of Cornwall by the Phaenicians, where they traded for tin; how are we to reconcile these inconsisten- cies, or to suppose that sufficient opportunities occurred for the instruction of the natives in the tenets of Druidism, unless we believe that a colony of Phaenicians." existed in Britain, who invented and propagated them, for which however there is no historical evidence, and which Mr. Pinkerton denies in terms of the most un- qualified reprobation.* As to the introduction or importation of this religion by the merchants of Phaenicia, it is hardly necessary to observe that it was an article in which persons of their description rarely traded and even if this position could be admitted, what then becomes of the assertion, that it was a late invention in the - South. *Vol. 1. p. 17, f Ibid. v. 2 p. 81: . 30(3 HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. - South of Britain? this (to use the learned gentleman's own phrase) “is really to, bad; it is pushing learned folly to an extreme degree.” - Tacitus and other Roman authors concur in stigmatizing Druidism with the epithets of barbarous and odious, at the same time that it is evident they had a very inadequate knowledge of its principles or practice: full of their own impor. £ance and satisfied of their superiority over the rest of the world in science, in arts and in arms, they entertained a sovereign contempt for all who had the misfortune (as they arrogantly termed it) to be born out of the Roman territory; though it is by no means improbable that those barbarians, those odious Druidical priests, whom they reprobated, were more enlightened upon the most important of all subjects, than the conquerors of mankind and the rulers of nations, whose chief excellence consisted in a greater dexterity in cutting throats, for the purpose of obtaining plunder to debilitate and enervate themselves. At the time when the Romans first invaded this country the Druids had certainly made a very conside- able progress in metaphysical learning, though it must remain doubtful, notwith- standing what has been said about their making use of the Greek letters, whether they had much if any knowledge of that mode of perpetuating opinions or facts, which has since become almost universal. At the commencement of the nine- teenth century we too may probably pity these unread savages, and bless our stars when we resort to the valuable fund of knowledge thus communicated to us by the improvements of ages, which preserves the matured wisdom of the philo- sopher, and transmits to us the instructing and amusing records of historians; yet after all, without depreciating the advantages Of undervaluing the benefits derived from the use of alphabetical characters and the art of printing, it cannot be denied that the plain undeviating rules of right and wrong are communicated in very few words, and that the eternal and immutable maxims of truth and justice require neither the aid of parchment or paper, or even the more durable monuments of brass or stone, to be perpetuated; they are written in an universal language, and in characters equally indelible, though invisible, in the breast of the ignorant and the learned, “the saint, the savage and the sage.” Possessed of this natural and - unerring system of learning; the Druids first and principally inculcated the fove of virtue and the detestation of vice, acknowledged and believed in the being “of a supreme God, master of the universe, to whom all things were submissive and and obedient; they called him the author of every thing that existeth, the eternal, w the ancient, the living and awful Being, the searcher into concealed things, the Being that never changeth; they attributed to this Deity, an infinite power, a bound- less knowledge, an incorruptible justice; they were forbidden from representing him - - - - }}} HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. 20, in a corporeal form, they were not even to think of confining him within the inclo- gure of walls, but were taught that it was only within woods and consecrated groves they could serve him poperly, as he seemed to reign there in silence, and to make himself felt by the respect he inspired.” Such is the description of this religion given by a very learned writer, (whose opinions on the subject I implicitly adopt) when he records the early tenets of the Scandinavians; in support of which he quotes Tacitus, who attributes these principles to the Germans; whilst the inhabitants of Spain and Gaul, and afterwards Britain, half subdued by the arms and luxury of the Romans, adopted by degrees new Gods, at the same time that they became subject to new masters. f ". ,-- The author from whom we principally derive our information as to the doctrine and manners of the Druids, and upon whom succeeding writers chiefly rely, is Julius Caesar; though how far he had leisure to contemplate, or inclination to attend to these subjects we know not: the language he uses when he mentions them, which most of his translators have erroneously communicated to us, does not appear to be the result of much reflection or consideration; indeed when we attend to what has been said by him as well as how it has been said, it will be very doubtful whe- ther any part of it will apply to the Druids of Great Britain; let us hear his words and see how they are introduced; “in omni Gallia eorum hominum, qui aliquo sunt numero atq. honore, genera sunt duo,” whom he describes to be the Druids and their captains and leaders in war: he then proceeds to relate the duties and privi- leges of the former, as legislators, priests and philosophers and concludes thus, “Doctrina in Britannia reperta, atq. inde in Galliam translata esse evistimatur.:” This is the foundation of all the knowledge we derive of the British Druids, and this is the only author who had an opportunity (if indeed he had such, for he did not con- tinue two months in the island) of learning personally from them what their opinions were, and yet every thing which has been cited above, relates to Gaul alone, and is given in a chapter describing the manners of that country only; but the doctrine of the bards of Gaul was introduced there (says he) from Britain as it * Mallet's North. antiq. vol. 1, p. 78. * As it seems to be the general opinion of English writers that the Druids offered up human gacrifices, which attributes to them a degree of barbarism and ferocity, from which in my opinion they were far removed, I could wish Mr. Owen or Edward Williams (who has already executed the work in part) would give the world an English stranslation of all the bardic Trioedd which have *en discovered: it will then be seen how oppo- site their tenets were to cruelty and bloodshed;their -- phrases are quaint and sometimes obscure, but their maxims are wise, virtuous and benevolent; in short the British Druids, from the remains of their tenets transmitted to posterity, appear to have retained the religion of the patriarchs at a period when it was abominably corrupted and disfigured on the continent. # De Bell Gallic, l. 6, c. 12, D d •og HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. “.4k.” . is thought, or according to common report. Rowland * and several others, when they quote this passage, tell us, that Caesar affirms that the discipline and practice of the Druids came from Britain into Gaul; whereas it is clear that Caesar affirms no such thing; he gives it only as the general opinion, (whether of his countrymen or the Britons we know not) as a mere report, the truth of which he did not think it worth his while to inquire or to trouble his head about: later writers with much greater probability suppose the reverse of this conjecture to be true, and that Druidism, pure uncorrupted Druidism, as it has been just described, was introduced from Gaul into Britain, and that at a very early period indeed, perhaps not many centuries after the deluge. The same system as the Druids professed was, no doubt the earliestrel gion of llcountries, ofthose of Persia, under the name of Ghaurs, Gauri, or as we would call them, Cewri, and of the old Brahmins of the East.t The latter, though they preserve their primitive manners and simplicity, have introduced such wild and fanciful theories, such whimsical and inexplicable tales and allegories, that the truth has been nearly suffocated under a load of uncouth monsters, of imaginary creation and shapes, and the pure tenets of the primaeval fathers concealed by the veil of almost impenetrable darkness and superstition. The Persians, though they mever indulged themselves with these manifold representations, or rather misrepre- sentations of the deity, have yet with as little reason as the Druids of Britain been. charged with the worship of a multiplicity of Gods; as fire, water, the Sun and moon, though the religion of both countries has been very properly described by one of the editors of the antient universal history, in the following words; “the Persi- ans were the adorers of one all-wise and omnipotent God, and they could not bear he should be represented by either molten or graven images, or that the Creator and Lord of the universe should be circumscribed within the narrow bounds of temples. 3. Fire, it is true, was always seen blazing on their altars, (after they had in some degree degenerated from their early tenets by the erection of temples) yet this fire was only symbolical, they worshipped God in the fire, and not the fire as a God, S. and great care was taken by the priest to explain that it was only esteemed holy as an emanation from the fountain of light; they were also taught that “whensoever. • - - they - * Mon. antiq. " - .. . * I had long believed from the language and made of communications between them in very manners of the Brahmins as conveyed to us by remote ages, and I have little doubt but time. Sir William Jones and others, that some affinity will throw a further light upon their intercourse. or connection had formerly subsisted between and shew that the early religion of both countries them and the Britons; I observe in Some late was the same, however since distorted and loaded. periodical publications that a discovery has been with idolatry and fable. Vol. 5, note in page 144. § Hyde's relig, vet. Pers. cap. 28, p. 348. Lord's hist. of the Persees. HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE, 903 they should pray by day, to turn their face towards the sun, and whensoever they prayed by night, they should incline towards the moon, for they were the two great lights of Heaven, and God's two witnesses, most contrary to Lucifer, who loved darkness better than light;" yet are these very men charged by Herodotus and Strabo, (being themselves Polytheists) with the worship of a variety of Gods, and in a note in the publication t I have just mentioned, a remarkable story is related as told by the former author, with as much boldness (says the editor) as if he had been an eye witness of it. “At their arrival, (the arrival of the Persians at the river Strymon) the Magi offered a sacrifice of white horses to the river, and after they had thrown them into the stream, with a composition of various drugs, the army brokeup and marched to the Nine Ways of the Edonians, where they found bridges prepared for their passage over the Strymon, but being informed that this place was called by the name of the Nine Ways, they took nine of the sons and daughters of the inhabitants, and buried them alive, as the manner of the Persians is, and I have heard that Amestris, the wife of Xerxes, having attained to a considerable age, caused fourteen children of the best families in Persia to be interred alive, to the honour of that God, which they say is under the earth”!!! Notwithstanding this, these same Persians, it is admitted by Herodotus himself, though they reverenced fire and water, never sacrificed to either, and it was one of their tenets to preserve those elements unpolluted by blood or dead carcases. We must not then wonder after this, that Tacitus and other historians have treated the Germanic as well as British Druids in the same manner, and mistaken their opinions of the Deity. ** However great the respect be to which Tacitus is intitled as an historian, upon the subject of religion, there is little reliance upon him: convinced (or at least appearing to be so, of thesoundness of his own, he seems to have given himselfvery little trouble to con- sider, and still less to describe the principles of those which existed in his day: the Christian religion, (then spreading widely and making considerable progress in Rome “ , . itself * The primaeval religion of Iran, according to Mohsani Fâni, was “a firm belief that one God Ymade the world by his power, and continually go- verned it by his providence; a pious fear, love and adoration of him ; a due reverence for parents and aged persons, a fraternal affection for the whole human species, and a compassionate ten- derness even for the brute creation;” and again, Sir William Jones, speaking of an oriental sage and writer of the last century, says, he was a pure theist; h; (Bohman) strongly disclaimed the ado- ration of fire or other elements; he often repeated with emphasis the verses of Firdausi on the pros- tration of Cyrus and his paternal grandfather be- fore the blazing altar. Think not that they were adorers of fire, for that element was only an exºg alted object, on the lustre o which they fixed. their eyes; they humbled themselves a whole week before God, and if thy understanding be ever so much perverted thou must acknowledge thy dependance on the being supremely pure. Sir Wm. Jones's works, vol. 1, p. 90. f Ant, univ. history. D d 2 204 HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. - itself) he dismisses briefly by calling it “an odious superstition,” the Jewish, he dwells slightly upon, and as far as he ventures to describe it, he is frequently erroneous; we must not therefore be surprized if when he treats of Druidism, which was extinct, or at least dying in his time, he is equally incorrect: it is not here in- tended to deny the corruptions, perhaps of the precepts, certainly of the ceremonial. rites of this order among the Gauls; their intercourse with the nations by whom. they were surrounded, when opinions were as various as their manners, their habits, their complexions or the climates of the countries from whence they were driven, or from. which they roamed in search of food or plunder, and even their acquaint- ance with the civilized Romans (as has been noticed) may have introduced idolatry and perhaps human sacrifices into their worship, but it by no means follows that among the Britons, G 6 toto divisi orbe” the corruptions of their faith must of course. have kept an equal pace; as well may the primitive fathers of the Christian church be supposed to be idolaters, because the artifice, the superstition or the ignorance of future ages. introduced images in processions and religious places or structures. Sammes” may amuse himself by conveying Caesar's wicker image, filled with men. from Gaul to Britain, and there setting fire to it, and a much more respectable and, learned author t may be permitted (without imputing affectation to him) to freeze. with horror or to become couvulsed with rage at the raw head and bloody bones his own imagination has painted and the odious rites and sacrifices which dance before his eyes, whenever this religion is mentioned, the dream of the one has long van- ished, and no doubt the paroxysm of the other will be soon over.—All authors admit that the lives of the Druids appear to be more virtuous, and their minds more enlightened than their cote mporari es. The liberal and candid Mr. King will there- fore hear me with patience, when in defence of men of such principles and such, lives, I deny that there is any thing like historical proof of human sacrifices havin gº been offered up in Britain ; and when I contend, that no author of antiquity has ever ventured to assert that fact of his own knowledge, or in any other way than by inference from the practice of the Gauls. Some English writers to support their hypothesis, it is true, have quoted Tacitus. with the same accuracy they did Julius Caesar upon a former part of this subject. This authorin describing the attack of Suetonius Paulinus upon the priests or Druids - of Anglesea, (whose sole aim was to frighten him from their shores, and deter him from murder and robbery) says, “Praesidium posthac impositum, victis excisisq. luci saevis superstitionibus sacri, nam cruore captivo adolere aras et hominum fibris consulere Deos fashabebant;” to this I answer as before, that it does not appear, Tacitus had any * British antiq. f King in his munim antiq, A HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE, 205 ańy personal knowledge of this transaction; indeed it is clear that he had not, nor is it by any means ascertained that he received his information from those who lived among the Britons, or who were conversant with their customs, their religion or their language, it may therefore fairly be inferred that he drew this ideal picture of what would have been done, if the Britons had succeeded against their invaders, from a scene on the coast of Gaul, and from the ceremonies and sacrifices there said to have been practiced, and even admitting the whole of what the historian has asserted, to be true, the behaviour of the Romans in that very attack upon women with dishevelled hair and inoffensive and unarmed men, and their Savage bar- barity after a victory, bloodless on the side of the conquerors; may be alledged as a very powerful apology for the supposed cruelties of the oppressed and injured savages of the Isle of Anglesea, and perhaps it may occur to those who have turned over the volumes which record the events that have passed in distant and even later ages, among nations, calling themselves civilized, that even as low down as the days of major Andre, instances may be produced where prison ers have been sacrificed from motives and on pretences full as unjustifiable (if not more so) than those by which the Druids were thought to have been actuated, whatever that whimsical and ano- malous code, called the law of nations may assert to the contrary. The definition of the word Druid has been the subject of controversy among the learned: some (at the head of whom is Pezron,” who is himself a host) derive the word, from the Celtic Derw, from whence the Greek A Prx, an oak, from their worship- •. ping and sacrificing in oak groves, or from their veneration for the misseltoe of the oak ; from Derw, (says he) compounded with häd, inchantment comes Druidae, “they were the priests, sages, diviners and magicians of the ancient Gauls, who gave them that name, because they practiced their divinations and enchantments in woods, and especially under oaks. Baxter t derives the word from Deruidhon, wise men, but though he is supported by some of the Latin authors, who call them. magistri sapientiae, and by others of our own island, who have written upon the subject, it does not appear to me that there is such a Celtic or British word as Derwidd, signifying a wise man; these old hearts; of oak therefore would probably have - - ðeen * Antiquities of nations, p. 240. means we extend our commerce over the globe, tº Britannica lingua appellati sunt deruidhon and Perhaps there may be something like wit in quasi dicas, persapien tes. Baxter Gloss. Sub, verb. the Comparison, as both are supposed to be formed # It is remarkable that at this day the inhabi- of impenetrable stuff and equally devoid of fear: tants of Britain should have such a respect for the but it is by no means improbable that the super- oak as to feel a pride in assimilating the human stitious veneration of our ancestors may have en- heart to that of a tree. It is true that from the couraged and preserved our partiality for this or-- oak we principally derive our defence, and by its nament of our woods and forests, . - *r - 206 HISTORY OF BRECKNocksHIRE. been admitted to have derived, as they well deserved, their appellation from their favourite tree, if the long received opinion had not been of late considerably shaken by the definition given by a writer, to whose abilities and erudition in the Celtic or British language, at the same time that I am proud to pay this public testimony of my respect, I cannot in this instance implicitly submit, Mr. William Owen, in his dictionary, under the word Derwydd, says, it is derived from Dār-gwydd,” one who has knowledge of, or who is present with; a definition neitherjustified by authority or even perfectly intelligible; though it is easily seen how it is intended to be applied; but there does not seem to me to be any necessity of disturbing the ety- mology sanctioned by ages, adopted by historians of great learning and confirmed by the general voice and approbation of most who have read and considered the When this religion was first known in our island cannot be ascertained. Caius, an author, quoted by Lewis in his antient history of Britain, supposes it to be about year 1013 before Christ; Stukely, in his description of Abury, with greater proba- bility, much earlier; they consisted here as in Gaul, of three orders, Derwydd, Bardd ac Ofydd, the Druid, the bard, and the Ovate, or disciple. The first were legisla- tors, as well aspriests and philosophers; the second, poets, who sung the actions of kings and heroes, and preserved them in metrical stanzas and triplets, in order to fix more strongly in the memory their religious and moral maxims, and the last pupils and adepts in the arts and sciences, as far as they were known in the early ages of the world. Those of the highest rank, when they acted in their juridical capacity, . (for the law maker and expounder were then frequently united in the same person) sat in high places, for which, there were political as well as religious reasons. These meetings were ealled Gorseddau or the councils, and the place on which they sat, Yr Wyddfa or the conspicuous: there are many of these high hills in Wales, and indeed it is still a common appellation for an elevated situation; that Jofty eminence in Herefordshire, Malvern or Moel-y-farn, was particularly dedicated to this purpose; here the Derwydd formerly sat to make, to expound and to execute his laws, or at least to enforce their execution by his presence and commands. Two or three mountains in Breconshire (one of them of very great height) are called by the name of the Derwydd-Garn, or the Druid's rock, and were antiently appropriated for the purposes justmentioned, which will hereafter be more particularly described. * As a c inspicuous and elevated situation, was thought necessary for the Druids, as legislators orjudges, so, retired or secluded spots in the middle of thick groves were considered as most eligible for contemplation and the worship of the deity, # Dar-gwydd according to Mr. Owen's explanation in his dictionary will mean the oak of presence, sº that here again we have an allusion to the oak. - . HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. - 907 not from a persuasion of any holiness peculiar to these places, but from their being better calculated for the consideration of religious subjects, and less liable to inter- ruption or intrusion, which they took care to prevent as far as was in their power, by encouraging the greater part of the community to believe, it would be attended with punishments here and hereafter. Much has been said as to their veneration for the misseltoe of the oak, and this has been objected against them as a proof of their ignorance or superstition, or both; but independent of the medical virtues, which it was supposed it did, and perhaps it really may possess (being at this day - called in the Welsh language, Holl-iach or All-heal) it is by no means improbable that this vegetable, which has so pleasing a verdure in the depth of Winter, and generally grows out of old and decayed trees, was only considered by them as a lively emblem of a resuscitation in a future state, in which they firmly believed, although they improved upon their early faith, by adding to it the transmigration of souls; a doctrine, which (however fanciful it may seem) was not without its advan- tages before the introduction of the gospel of Christ. - - But if this harmless superstitious partiality for the misseltoe has been an object of reprehension, the Cromlech, the odious and hateful Cromlech, has been confidently stated by some, and strongly conjectured by others to have been a sort of butcher's block or slaughtering stone, on which the throats of men were cut, or human victims knocked down like calves to the praise and glory of the Deity. It seems at first not a little extraordinary that much reading and great learning should frequently lead men into fanciful reveries and the formation of systems as whimsical as they are ephemeral, yet even this may perhaps be accounted for, when we reflect and con- sider that it may be permitted, perhaps wisely ordained, by Providence, to convince mankind how many errors they are liable to be led into by that Ignis Fatuus, human reason; thus the erudite and excellent author” before named describes the Cromlech. as an altar of sacrifice, informs us that the slanting position of the stone is to pre- vent the human victim from retreating and in short is so very minute as to particu- lars, that one would (as was said of Herodotus) almost suppose him to be present - at this antient autode F e.—W ith the greatest deference to the general knowledge of this really learned man, and with all the gentleness and coolness peculiar to my country, I must take leave to affirm that the Cromlech is no more calculated for the purpose he mentions than it is for an E O or a billiard table, and I appeal to every unlearned. eye who has seen them, and who has no predilection for system-mongers and - system-makers, whether they have any more resemblance to the floor of a slaughter house, than they have to those modern stages on the road to ruin, to which I have. - . . . . . . ~ above: 7~ * * Kin Š-- 908 HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. above alluded; the same writer however fancies that he has discovered in the Welsh sledges and wheel carts and a few conical pigsties near Cardiff, the remains of the British fighting cars and the huts of the antient inhabitants, yet there is no more similitude between the two first and the ancient military chariots of our remote ancestors, than that both were drawn by horses, and the form of the little buildings he describes was merely accidental and not peculiar to the country. The British fighting car with its knives or scythes attached, was calculated for an open and uninclosed country, the sledge on the contrary was first introduced into general use (though its simple construction proves it to be of very early invention) when the face of the country was totally changed by the intersection of hedges, ditches and narrow lanes, and in parts where there are precipices and declivities, over which no waggon or even a cart can travel. The stones called Cromlechau, before they were thus converted a second time into altars (for this was the opinion some years back) were shewn by Borlase, in his antiquities* of Cornwall, (as clearly as the nature of the case and the lapse of time will permit) to have been sepulchral; perhaps they Acovered the remains of the chief Druid, or else some of the warriors of the age, as was the case with respect to one mentioned in the following lines written in the fifth or sixth century: “Piau y bedd pedryſal, Ai bedwar maen am y tal? - Bedd Madawc Marchog dywalt To whom belongs the quadrangular grave, With its four stones inclosing the front? It is Madoc's the intrepid warrior. In confirmation of this latter opinion might be cited the sentiments of a writer in the Monthly and Gentleman's Magazines who subscribes, Meirion; of whose abilities a Welsh reader may form some judgement, when he peruses his other letters, in those publications under that signature: his attention to the subject has been indefatigable and his knowledge of it is extensive; he may perhaps here- after be induced to communicate it to the world, in order to dispell those abomina- ble chymeras, by which over zealous christians and (I may add) too credulous historians have hastily suffered themselves to be frightened. * . The name of the second order, that of bards, is derived by Baxter: from bár, fury, from whence says he, barydd and corruptly bardh, a poet; from the same root he adds, comes breuddwyd or barwyddyd, a dream, as if it were a vision or prophecy; of this opinion was the late reverend Evan Evans, generally called Evan ! - Brydydd * I earnestly request that the reader who seeks wery few pages, appear to me to be irresistible; for further satisfaction on this subject, would if his arguments fail to produce conviction, any refer to Borlase's chapter on the cromlech; his attempt of mine would be as vain as it would pro- . facts and reasonings, though they are contained in bably be ineffectual. f Memorials of the graves of the warriors. : Gloss. Sub. Verb. # HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. 209. Brydydd hir, or Evan the tall Bard; * Owen in his dictionary derives it from Bâr, one that makes conspicuous; which word however it is observable he has not in this sense in its alphabetical order. They were the prophets and poets of their times, and continued to have some pretensions to inspiration after the first degrees were extinet and after the introduction of Christianity: Merddyn Wyllt or Merlinus Sylvestris, in the sixth century, and others have left behind them some incoherent rhapsodies, afterwards called prophecies, but many years had not elapsed after the abolition of the superior order, before they very prudently relied more upon their merits as poets, than their mission as seers, their second class was again divided into historical and genealogical, the latter of whom were called Arwydd-Feirdd, or heraldic bards; at first they were employed as ambassadors, or messengers between contending princes, and afterwards their duty was te register arms and pedigrees, which as the Welsh had no surnames was of great utility; there were also many other reasons for the attention of the Britons to genealogy, which will be seen here-- after. One of the principal duties of the Arwydd-Fardd was to attend upon the birth, marriage or death of any Gwr-bonheddig, (a gentleman or man of high des- cent) and to register the pedigree of his family. The cerdd foliant or song of praise, they wrote during the life of their patrons: if this composition after having, extolled the hero, whose exploits it was meant to celebrate, who was generally “ more wise, more just, more every thing” than any person who lived before him frequently concluded with an intreaty from the poet, for a present, of a horse, a hawk, a hand-saw or some other useful article, but the Marwnad or elegy was required to contain truly, and at length the genealogy and descent of the deceased. from his eight immediate ancestors: “yr wyth rhan thieni,” to notice the several. collateral branches of the family, to commemorate in elegiac verse the surviving, wife or husband with her or his descent or progeny, to register them in his booksS. and to deliver a true copy to the heir, in order that it might be preserved among the authentic archives of the family. It was to be fairly written, and produced by - - > - the. * Dissertatio de Bardis. London 1764. # This part of their duty perhaps intitled them to the appellation ofbards. . : Geo. Owen Harry's well springe of true nobilitie. - - - §Some of these heraldic registers are still extant taken like the English visitations of the college -*. and are either called from the places where they of arms at stated periods; but being kept in the were usually deposited, as the Cotterell book in chief mansion in the province or county, they were glamorganshire, or from the name of some of the transferred by the Arwydd-fardd to his successor, most celebrated of the heralds, who contributed to who entered the deaths and births as they occur- them, as Ilyfr Llewelyn Offeirind: they were not red within his Clera or Cylch. -- - E. e. * - ..º 10 HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. ...the bard on the day month after the funeral, when all the principal branches of the family and their friends were assembled together in the great hall of the mansion house, and then recited in an audible and distinct voice, for the approbation of the company; after which it was carefully deposited in the munimen talchest, and from thence forward considered as the best evidence of descent. To recompence the bard for his trouble, he had a stipend out of every plough-land in the country: he had also other duties; he was to make a perambulation or visitation once in every three years to the houses of all the gentlemen in the country; this was called Clera or Cylch Clerwr, the bard’s circuit, in which he was required to preserve *Trichof ynis Brydain,” or the three memorials or records of theisle of Britain; these are defined to be a chronicle ofthe lives and noble actions of the kings or princes of this country, secondly the elements and beauties of the British language, and particularly the preservation of the rules to be observed as to the different metres used in poetry, and thirdly to correct and arrange the pedigrees and descents of families and the entries made in their registers in the intervals, they likewise on these occasions like the English heralds entered in their books the arms each family were intitled to bear and corrected, or at least forbad those who assumed them improperly, from continuing them. In this perambulation likewise they registered any remarkable events, omitted for want of authentic information to be inserted as they occurred in their district or neighbourhood : from these books it should seem Cradoc of Llancarvan collected the acts of the British princes from Cadwaladr to the year 1156, and after- wards the heraldic bard Guttyn Owain, who lived about the year 1480, during these, his circuits procured some valuable records as well as information which he has transmitted to posterity. Some late authors” represent the bards so totally averse to war, that it was not lawful to draw a sword in their presence, and much has been, and more will be said about their love of peace and hatred of discord; but with all the respect due to this order of men, who made considerable progress in knowledge, in times when the rest of their countrymen were comparatively savages, it cannot.—it ought not to be denied that they were frequently the trumpeters of battle; all their songs were incitements to heroism, or eulogies upon those who had distinguished themselves in war, and one of their countrymen (Giraldus Cambrensis) describes them as frequently exclaiming with ardour, “Procul hinc avertite pacem! Nobilitas cum pace perit:” or as one of the servants of Tullus Aufidius has it, - . . - - * Peace is nothing but to rust iron, increase tailors and breed ballad makers : - —the wars for my money.” Coriolanus. *...* Edward '# Jones's Welsh bards. Edward Williams. HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. 21 i Edward the first has been accused of having commanded the massacre of this order, which it is said was executed wherever the arm of power could reach them, but the truth of this charge is extremely doubtful; it originates; or at least was first published, by an author * who wrote several centuries after this supposed pro- scription: no trace appears of it in any English histories, except as a quotation from Wynne, and there is not even in the early Welsh poems or chronicles (where it surely would have been preserved had the cruel tragedy been acted) any accusation of the kind, as far as my reading extends. - The third order, the Euvates, Ovates, or disciples was, as it is supposed (for little is now known as to them) employed in the rudiments of divinity, and in the study of astronomy, geography and natural philosophy, multa praetereade sideribus atq. eorum motu, de rerum natura, de Deorum vi ac potestate disputant et juventutiº. transdunt;t from this, it should seem that they were instructors of youth, and par- ticularly of those who (after them) were candidates for entering into the Druidical institution; to the higher order of which these Euvates were twenty years before they attained, or before they were perfectly qualified to receive and comprehend the mysteries of religion and government: to qualify themselves for a knowledge of the duties of the important station they were to hold in society, upon their being elected Druids, it was first necessary they should learn the system of the universe and the laws of nature; the Euvates became extinct at the same time with the first order, and, as has been before observed, have left behind little more than their name, which seems to confer upon them a further insight into futurity, than could be expected from their rank. - - This unsociable, this odious superstition having been prohibited to Roman citizens by Augustus, was totally proseribed by Claudius; it lingered however (as Rowland: tells us upon the authority of Hector Boetius) in part of Scotland and the isle of Man, until about the year 300 after Christ, when a king of Scotland called Craty- linth $ (perhaps the name may be familiar to the reader) eradicated it, introduced the Christian religion, and built a new church in that island called Sodorense Fanum or St. Saviours, from whence the present diocese takes the name of Sodor and Man, but more correctly Sodor in Man. - : To those Roman writers, who took most pains to inquire into the nature of Druidical worship, and who found they prayed to, and adored one invisible God, - . . - this * Wynne in his history of Wales. t Caesar de Bell, Gallic, lib. 6. f Mon. antiq. p. 108. § According to Lewis, in his antient history of Scotland; he then proceeds to tell a long story Britain, upon the authority of Hector Boetius, about the Picts having stolen his greyhound Mo- (though he says not a word about the expulsion of lossus; for this offence the Scots went to war the druids) Cratylinthus the son of Findoc, suc- with them, and—thus endeth the life of king Cra- seeded Donald the third, an usurper, as king of tylinthus. - * - * E.e 2 : $2.19 {7}, HISTORY OF BiºCKNGCKSHIRE, this system appeared cold and unsociable; while the generals, commanders of legions and soldiers, who had been in the island, and had seen the Meini-hirion, the circular . A - 2 5 stones and rude pillars in their groves and Sacred places, mistook these monuments, land marks and temples for Gods. * “Simulacraque maesta Deorum - - Arte carent, caesisque extant informia truncis.” Lucan. f Thev likewise concluded that they offered up sacrifices according to their own - - - 8.5 amanner, and a little exaggeration and a knowledge of the existence of the practice in Gaul, made those sacrifices consist of human victims. An inhabitant of China, who knew nothing of the English language or customs, visiting our churches in the beginning of the reign of Henry the eighth, and seeing there the multitude of images of the Saints, would have reported us as the worshippers of many Gods, and if he went to Smithfield in the reign of his daughter Mary, when the faggot blazed, and the priest attended with exultin gjoy, while his victim writhed with agony, he would have told his countrymen that the English were accustomed to offer up Human sacrifices. N The religion of the Druids, though loaded (as we have just seen) by some Pagan and many Christian authors who have followed them with a multitude of Gods, as Taranis, Teutates, Hesusand a swarm of Runic and Sclavonian Deities, being in fact too abstracted and metaphysical for the comprehension of Polytheists was, not- withstanding the doctrine of the metempsychosis, well calculated for the reception of the tenets of Christianity: accordingly we find them received in Britain at a very early period. Capgrave, Alford, Cressy, Lewis and others assert that it was planted by Joseph of Arimathea and his companions at Glastonbury, about the year of Christ 63;” butStillingfleett combats this position with much learning and labour and endea- yours to prove that the gospel was first preached here by Saint Paul: again according to the Welsh Triads, the Christian religion was introduced into this island by Brân-fendiged, or Brennus the blessed, who became a hostage at Rome for his son £aractacus, which must have been about the year of Our Lord 62; be this as it may, it certainly did not gain ground until the latter end of the second century, § when - . - . . . . Eleutherius, * Stillingfleet in his origines saerae, charges Jef embraced Christianity here. In the time of Edw. frey of Monmouth as the father of this tale about 3, (A. D. 1344) a licence issued to John Blome of 3oseph of Arimathea—it may be so——but in London to go to Glastonbury to dig for the body an English translation of his history, now before of Joseph of Arimathea, according to a divine re- me, published in 1702 or 1703, there is not one velation he had had upon the subject. Rymer’s word on the subject; on the contrary it is there Faed. vol. 5. Unfortunately we do not hear what said that Lucius and his people were the first who success he met with. - *, f Origines Sacrae, p. 37. Myfyrian Arch. vol.1, p. 63, $ Circa, 172. HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. *_ - 943 Eleutherius, the twelfth bishop of Rome sent two holy men, named Elvanus and Medwinus, or as others say, Faganus and Damianus ór Deruvianus, for the conver- ision and (as it is asserted) at the desire Of Lucius, king of Britain, whom the Welsh call Llés ap Coel:—this king, Usher in his primordia says, was known by name of Lever mawr, which he translates “magni splendoris;” but it must be observed, that (making all due allowances for mispelling) there is no word in the Welsh like Lever, importing light, uuless it be Lloer, the moon, who has been generally represented as a female; perhaps it may be Lles Llafar mawr, or Lucius of the mighty word, i.e. verbum Dei; about this period the Christian faith, which certainly until then had made no considerable progress, began to flourish and from thence forward became the religion of the greatest part of the island, until some time afterwards, when the irruption of the Saxons into Britain introduced their Pagan mythology. In 314 we find three British bishops summoned to, and meeting the council at Arles. In little more than two centuries subsequent to the reign of this king Lucius, the Britains were infected with the heresy of Pelagius or Morgan, a native of this country; for 'the suppression of which, Germanus and Lupus (two bishops) were sent from Rome.* Having been successful in their mission; in order to perpetuate the orthodox faith, they consecrated bishops, who established schools and seminaries of theology from whence issued those primitive ministers and propagators of the , gospel, who with so much laudable diligence and zeal comunicated to their coun- trymen the admirable precepts of their divine master. Among the disciples of Germanus and Lupus were Dubricius and Iltutus, or Dyfrig and Illtid, two holy and learned men, who afterwards advanced the cause, and propagated the gospel of Christ far and wide, but principally among the inhabitants of South Wales. Dubricius was consecrated archbishop of Caerleon, - according to Matthew of Westminster, of Landaffas others, but there is much con- fusion and uncertainty with respect to him and his successors; he was appointed about the year 490 (says Stillingflet, by Teiliaus (or Teilaw), who was succeeded by Oudoceus, after whom came St. David, who removed the see to Mynyw or Menevia in Pembrokeshire, much to the dissatisfaction of some of the successors of Dubricius, so that there was afterwards a schism or division between them and a protestation was entered against it before Calixtus the second, in 1116. St. pavid was maternally of Brecknockshire origin, being the son of Melari, daugh- ter of Brychan prince of Brecknock; by some he is made the successor of Dubri- cius, but I rather believe incorrectly, as he is placed by Brown Willist in the see - • . . . . , , , in * Circa, 449. + History of the see of St. David's. - •14 HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. in the year 577; * previous to this the inhabitants of Brecknockshire were much- --º. indebted to Iltutus for his labours among them: he established a seminary or school of theology at Lantwit or Llaniiltid in Glamorganshire, and we have se- veral places in this county which were dedicated, or at least preserve the memo- ry of his name; one of them tradition reports to have been his occasional residence. At this period, and for some centuries afterwards, the cathedral was the parish church of the whole diocese, and the whole district or province over which the - bishop presided, was called “y plwyf, as, y plywf Dewi, y plwyf Teilaw, the parish of St. David's, the parish of St. Teilaw or Landaff, indeed at this moment. the Welsh have no name for a diocese, although they have one for a bishoprick. The extent of this parish or jurisdiction, accounts for the merit afterwards allowed to those who made a pilgrimage to St. David's, and a pilgrimage it most certainly: was to the inhabitants of the county of Brecon, who lived at such a distance from , it; consequently they were not only under great obligations to Iltutus for his per- sonal exertions in preaching the gospel among them, but for establishing his school, from whence came many pious and learned persons who trod in his f *. footsteps, and displayed the truths of christianity among the then almost savage natives. At this time we are told by Matthew of Westminster, the English me-- tropolitans of London and York, whose names were Theonius and Thadiocus, with several of their clergy, were obliged to take refuge in Wales, from the oppression of the Saxons, who burnt their churches, and prosecuted their persons; some of these prelates and ministers no doubt contributed their assistance and labours to-- wards the conversion and instruction of the inhabitants of South Wales, thou gh. their names are now forgotten. Until this period, and indeed until the massacre of the monks of Bangor, by the instigation of Austin (as it is said, though I hope * untruly) the British church. preserved its independence, on the see of Rome, with which they had a . dispute about the time of celebrating Easter: Taliesin denounces the judgments. of Heaven against the clergy, who did not oppose the oppressions and extor. - tions of that church. * - “Gwae'r * I am very much inclined to think the whole of and became part of St. David's, though got with-. Breconshire and that part of Radnorshire, which out many struggles, and until it produced the dis- . †--> sº - • , ... - - & * - tº º ſº - - - - gº Borders on the river Wye, were at this time consi– pute about Ystradyw, recorded in the Liber Lan- dered to be in the PºwrTeſlaw, or diocese of davensis; according to that MS. Mochros. upon. Llandaff, but being under the government of prin- Wye or Boughrood in Radnorshire was within the ees of a different tribe from those of Gwent and diocese of Landaff.... Morganwg, this district was separated by degrees - HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. *16 “Gwae'r offeiriad byd Woe to the worldly priest Ni's angreifftia gwyd | Who will not reprove vice Agni phregetha: ; * ºr- And will not preach: º Gwae nicheidwei gael, , Woe to him who looks not to his flock, Ag efyn fugail | Though he calls himself their shepherd, Agnis areilia; | And yet watches them not. - Gwae nicheidweiddefaid Woe to him who protects not his sheep Rhag bleiddiaid Rhufeiniaid | From the wolves of Rome Ai fon gnwppa. With his crooked staff. * When the British clergy were murdered en masse, as they were at Bangor and oppressed by the prevailing influence of the Roman monks and missionaries, assisted . by the power of the Saxons and afterwards of the Normans, they became as abject as they were before spirited and resolute, and from the time of the latter, we see them obeying with implicit submission whomsoever their conquerors chose to put over them, and mixing with uncomplaining insignificancy in the disregarded and unvalued herd. Giraldus Cambrensis (from motives, which may as well not be too minutely inquired into) formed an exception to this position, and boldly stood forth the champion of the see of St. David's, soon after its metropolitical jurisdiction had been .* surrendered to Canterbury by a foreigner, whose duty it was to have protected and - preserved its rank and privileges. – f Gerald,+ the Welshman, was born at Manerbier in Pembrokeshire, about the middle of the twelfth century; £ the exact date of his birth Gannot be ascertained; by the mother's side he was descended from the princes of South Wales, and paternally from Gerald, the ancestor of the present Leinster family. English genealogists are fully satisfied with tracing the Geraldines up to Gerard or Gerald Fitzwalter, third son of Walter Fitz-other in the time of Henry the first, while our Arwydd-feirdd, or heraldic bards, in their accustomed manner, follow them aupwards for seven or eight generations before that period, as far back as Zuria Lopez the fair, first lord of Biscay. One of his descendants they say, of the name of Gerald Dias Lopez, being expelled by his bastard brother Inigo, went to Florence, where the family settled for a short time. Other, the third in descent from the last named, Lopez, lived in Normandy; his son Walter came over into England with - - * - - the “The Crozier, the pontifical or bishop's staff. If named from the place of his nativity like his The jumble of plural and singular in the two last parent, he should be called Gerald de Manerbier, lines is frequently seen in those early days. the Welsh styled him Gerald ap Gwilym. ... + Doctor Henry incorrectly calls him Girald # Wharton's Ang, sacr. vol. 2. p. 466. £arry, he was not of Barry, though his father was. . s 216 HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. the conqueror, and had issue, among others, Gerald, Castellan of Windsor and Seneschal of Pembroke, whose wife was Nest, daughter of Rhys ap Tewdwr, prince of South Wales, by whom he had a daughter Angharad, who married William de Barri, the father of Giraldus Cambrensis; he was the youngest of four brothers, and though he acknowledges that when very young, he was of too playful a disposition, yet at an early age, he shewed so strong an attachment to religion that his father used to call him his little bishop: in this turn of thinking-he-was encouraged and confirmed by his uncle David Fitzgerald, bishop of St. David's. After long appli- cation to study and three year's-residence in Paris, (then the principal seminary of learning in Europe) he was, upon his return into England, fixed upon by Richard, archbishop of Canterbury, to preach up the payment of tythes to his countrymen, who it seems were at that time very remiss in their duty to the church in this respect, - and he had also authority to reform such other abuses as he might observe in his progress through the See of St. David’s : he lost not a moment in executing his commission, and upon his entrance into Brecknockshire, finding that an old man of the name of Jordan, who was archdeacon of that district, publicly kept a concubine, (as was too often the case among the clergy” of those days) he at first remonstrated with him and admonished him in the name of the archbishop of Canterbury to turn his mistress out of doors: this request appeared so unreasonable as well as imper- timent to the hoary-headed debauchee, (for such he was, if Gerald is believed) that he defied and abused both the archbishop and his commissary; he was howeves soon made to feel the force of ecclesiastical power: Gerald instantly suspended him. and deprived him of his preferments and benefices, and the primate was so pleased with his spirit, that when he made the report to him of his proceedings, in whicle (without doubt) he did not forget to inform his Grace of the foul language used by the old clergyman towards his metropolitan, that he prevailed upon the bishop of Saint David's to bestow the vacant archdeaconry upon him, reserving for his predecessor a small pension, in order to keep him quiet, tº: This * “Rectores et sacerdotes in Wallia, habentes Geo. Gascoyne, MSS. Bib. E. Linc. Oxon.— . concubinas secum in domibus commorantes, ro-. gantes episcopum suum Menevens. (cui nomen fuit Delabere, A. D. 1452) ut auctoritate pontificiali faciat seu compellat concubinas suas recedere et in, perpetuum separari a domibus suis; responde- bat episcopus, abominabilis memoriae; ego non volo concedere, quia tunc episcopus vester per- derem annuatim 400 marcas quas recipio in meå diocessā pro concubinas sacerdotum. De quoli- bet enim sacerdote recipio annuatim unum nobile wel ultra pro sua concubina.” Dictionar. Theol. Whether the priests of this age were suddenly conscience-smitten, or, as is more likely, the lar. dies, became troublesome and expensive is not. clear; the nature of the request to the bishop, to do that, which by proper exertion they could... . themselves accomplish, induces one to believe. they were not masters of their own houses at this. day; but “the country gentlemen” will excusa. an ecclesiastical officer of the diocese for not. translating this abominable libellous extract. HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. 217 - This transaction does not leave the commissary’s character entirely free from suspicion; it is impossible to avoid observing that he tells his own story to the arch- bishop, and (as the event turned out) it should seem, with a view to his own benefit; the business of the hush-money also proves, that all was not as it should be; but be this as it may, and however he may have acquired his dignity, he certainly con- ducted himself, when in possession of it with great courage as well as vigilance and became a zealous defender of the rights of the archdeaconry. Four years after his collation, he was again selected by Baldwyn, successor to Richard in the see of Can- terbury, to accompany him through Wales, and assist him in preaching up the Crusades, in which, according to his account, they met with very great success. It was in this progress he wrote his itinerary; a work that contains much valuable information, and though,it is plentifully sprinkled and interspersed with marvels, miracles and pious legends, yet the style of the priest and the historian as well as traveller differs so much, that we instantly discover when the conjuring cap is going to be put on; so that there is no danger of the characters being confounded or mistaken. - To” the activity and courage of Gerald, the diocese of Saint David's and arch- deaconry of Brecon are probably indebted for the greatest part of Radnorshire and the two parishes of Kerry and Moughtreff in Montgomeryshire, which in his time were claimed by the bishop of Saint Asaph as part of his see, and who to Support his pretensions, called upon the inhabitants of Powys and Cedewin to assist him in taking possession of the church of Kerry by force, if he could not obtain it other- wise. Gerald had just returned to Brecknock, or rather to his house at Llanddew near that town, from a journey to the borders of North Wales, when he was informed, of the bishop's intentions, and though he was not recovered from the fatigue of his. former excursion, and his friends and dependants fearing the power of the prelate, endeavoured to dissuade him from meeting him, he resolved without hesitation to prevent his intrusion into the district committed to his care; he therefore crossed. the Wye without delay, summoned the clergy of Radnorshire to meet him at Kerry, and not chusing to rely entirely upon his own arguments, or even the justice of his cause, while he apprehendedaresistance by force, oran opposition by numbers, he pre- vailed upon Einion Glºd and Cadwallon, two of the reguli of the country, to furnish. him with a body of horse to defend the rights of the see of St. David's, if necessary: thus assisted, he entered the church of Kerry, before the bishop's arrival, tolled the - - - * bells * Gir. De rebus a se gestis. Cir. Camb. Derebus, a se gestis. Wharton's Ang. sacr. vol. 2. p. 471. Ef 218 HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. and said mass there. When he was informed of the prelate's approach,he prohibited him from setting his foot upon the threshold of the house of God, unless he came there peaceably and as a friend; upon this, the bishop offered to produce and shew * - him an antient book to prove that not only this church, but all others between Wye and Severn, were within the diocese of St. Asaph ; “you may write what you please (says Gerald) in your own book, but I know it has belonged to St. David's these last three hundred years, and by the grace of God, I’ll preserve it to that see, while I have breath.” “I’ll excommunicate you,” says the prelate, “if you do (quoth - are only an archdeacon, and I am a bishop;” “if you are a bishop (says Gerald) you are not my bishop, and have no more right to pass sentence upon me than I have upon you.” Hereupon the bishop alighted from his horse, and in order that his anathema might have greater weight and solemnity, he put on his mitre, grasped his crosier and approached, (followed by a crowd of his attendants) but the arch- deacon, who knew the man's disposition, that he was a quarrelsome prating fellow . and rash and precipitate in his measures, ordered the Radnorshire clergy, who attended in pursuance of his summons, to accompany him arrayed in white robes and surplices and other saeerdotal vestments, carrying the cross and lighted tapers as in a procession. “Hollo! (says the bishop) what areye at now”? only preparing says Gerald, if you should be rash enough to excommunicate us, to excommunicate you at the same instant of time;” “well then (says the prelate) on account of the friendship we had for you when we studied together at Paris, we will be merciful to you and not excommunicate you by your respective names; but we hereby the archdeacon) I’ll also excommunicate you,” “but you cannot (says the other) you excommunicate all those who seek to deprive the see of St. Asaph of her rights.” ... • “And we (says Gerald in a still louder voice) hereby excommun icate all those who wish to deprive the see of Saint David's of her rights,” and then looking up at the bells which hung at a little distance behind him, he ordered them to be clammed” three times, (a sound it seems peculiarly disagreeable to Welsh ears) this he meant as a confirmation of his sentence, and to disgrace his adversary, and it seems it pro- . duced that effect, for the bishop instantly mounted his horse and quitted the field of altercation, followed by the mob, who had collected together to see the issue of this dispute, and who according to their usual custom, t made a great noise, hooted and threw sticks, stones, and turf after him. In his retreat, he called upon Cad. wallon, perhaps the same who had furnished his adversary with assistance, and who * Clamming is a campanological phrase for making the bells all strike at once. . . * “Populi vero qui ad hoc spectaculum undiq. concurrerant clamorem magnum, utmos est Gentis illius, post ipsos extollentes glebis etiam et lignisac lapidibus fugientes a tergo sunt prosecuti, ... . *s. HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE, 219 was therefore anxious to hear how the business at Kerry had ended. This chief- tain immediately interrogated the prelate on the subject, who endeavoured to evade further inquiry, by assuring him that he really did not think himself safe in the company of that confounded archdeacon; but that he did not chuse to take any steps to his prejudice, because they had been formerly companions and fellow stu- dents. His opponent, not satisfied with defeating him, determined to be himself the herald of his victory; he followed him to the court of Cadwallon, where instead 4. of reviving the dispute or upbraiding the bishop upon the injustice of his attempt, he entirely altered his conduct, and as he was now in the diocese of Saint Asaph, he professed the most implicit deference and obedience to the diocesan's commands, proferred him with a provoking civility, the choicest viands, and begged that as they were formerly companions in France, when they were poor men and in pri- vate life, they might again become good neighbours and friends; the bishop hesi- tated, yet after some consideration he thought it most prudent to receive his presents and in order to conclude the business with seeming good humour, he sent to assure the archdeacon that he did not love him the less in consequence of what had passed, but rather esteemed him the more for defending so stoutly the rights of his church. This quarrel betwixt the men of God, occasioned much mirth and loud laugh- ter * in the English court, where it was reported by the conqueror himself, preceded by an observation, which at the same time that it displayed his arro- gance, came with a very bad grace from him, he told the English courtiers that as the laity of Wales were well known to be thieves of their neighbour's property, so their bishops were habituated to steal churches. He was now a great favourite with Henry the second, but he was soon doomed to feel the weight of this mo- narch's resentment. . - - The chapter of St. David's were so much pleased with his successful resistance to the attempted encroachment upon the diocese, that they elected him their bishop upon the death of Peter, theretofore prior of Wenlock. Upon this occasion the great and enlightened Plantagenet was actuated by a narrow and illiberal policy, or influenced by an impulse of passion which disgraces his memory, he was so hurt at the election being made without his consent, that though he admired Giraldus' for his learning and abilities, he from this moment determined to persecute him; a resolution in which he persevered with unrelenting animosity during the remainder of his life, though he had a little while previous to this, publicly declared that he would have promoted Giraldus to the highest ecclesiastical dignity in his kingdom, *Omnium sc, quiin Curiatunc erant ethaec audierantrisu marino subecuto, &c. Gir. De rebus ase gestis. F fo *30 HiSTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE, if he had not been a Welshman and a descendant of Rhys ap Tewdwr. From hence forth then, we find this intrepid son of the church, combating the power of the king of England and the archbishop of Canterbury, at the risk of his life and the sacrifice of nearly the whole of his property, in his endeavours to restore the see of Saint i)avid's to its archepiscopal dignity: in this arduous contest we see him unsubdued by power, unawed by menaces and uncorrupted by money (although all these means and temptations were employed) steadily persevering in the cause he had espoused, and though unsuccessful, yet with spirit unbroken.” As an instance of his mag- nanimity in adversity, and his contempt of the perils which surrounded him, it is related of him that, when he was travelling through the almost impervious wilds of Ystradtowy, and over the mountains of Cantreff bychan in his road to England, he was met by a messenger from his dean at Brecon, who informed him that all his lands there, as well as at Llanddew, and all other lands belonging to the bishoprick which he held during the vacancy of the see, were seized by the officers and min- isters of William de Breos for the use of the crown. At Llywel in Breconshire, another messenger met him and confirmed the tale, adding also that his own private property had been levied by a mandate from the king's justiciary: the archdeacon unmoved by this unpleasant intelligence, pursued his journey, and when the dean himself, with pallid looks and in trembling accents, related to him his misfortunes, at the distance of about two miles from Llanddew, in the road between Trallong and Aberescir, exaggerating the injuries he had received, and the danger he was exposed to, and at the same time intreating that he would return to Saint David's, as the part of the diocese, most distant from his enemies, he jocularly called out to him; “What! have we no good ale ieft in my house at Llanddew " finding (as we must presume he did, though the answer is not given in the publication men- tioned in the margin) that that was safe, he proceeded, “well then let's go and drink it, that it may not fall into the hands of those Norman plunderers:” so saying he pursued his journey, entered his house and settled his affairs there with the same coolness and deliberation as in the plenitude of his power; but perceiving that his struggles against the king and the primate would be ineffectual in an English court or before English prelates, he appealed to Rome, (the only resort then left to him) where he appeared without loss of time, though not without much difficulty, to support in person the validity of his election and the dignity of his see: here he presents us with a shocking scene of corruption and depravity. The Pontiff appears to have amused him from day to day, sometimes cajoling and addressing him by the name of bishop, at other times condemning his adversaries in costs, because he * * knew * Cir. De jure et statu Eccles. Menev. Wharton's Ang, sacr. vol. 2. p. 555. HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. 991 knew they could best afford to pay them, and after he had squeezed all he could out of both sides, he sent them home equally disappointed, declaring the election of Giraldus, as well as that of the court candidate for the bishoprick of St. David's void; leaving undecided the question as to the rank of the see of St. David's, and without confirming the right of the metropolitan of Canterbury, who was in firm expectation of having it established by dint of corruption and the influence of the English monarch. - •. In the prosecution of this business, the princes of North and South Wales, com- missioned their countrymen to present a petition to the Pope on behalf of the British church, which as it states in language as pathetic as I fear it was true, the oppressions and injuries it suffered in those days, I cannot refrain from inserting: * “To the right reverend father and lord Innocent,by the grace of God chief pontiff;” Llewelyn prince of North Wales, Gwenwynwyn and Madoc princes of Powys, Griffith and Maelgwn, Rhys and Meredith sons of Rhys prince of South Wales, send health and due obedience in all things; be it known to your fatherly t goodness, what hardships and danger of the loss of souls the church of Wales hath sustained since by royal violence, and not by the authority of the * -, -->4 ... • . a nº upon which the judge again summed up the whole of the proceedings, in which, if there appeared any defect of evidence, or any circumstances requiring further explanation, two of the judges appointed a conference with the parties and their ... ** Art -i- ºf- - a º * Fºx tº * * t T 53 tº º 9 - f - g advocates; this was called “Gair Cyfarth,” signifying “ an address;” after which proceeding, no witnesses could be produced by the parties. This rule was adopted upon sound policy, and was the result of good sense and experience, as it would *~~~~ : º º - “ro ~~~~~ ; +4 e - " - . V. have been highly improper to have - permitted either the demandant or defendant after a hint from the court as to any error, insufficiency or contradiction in the evi- dence, to amend the defect by additional proof, which would make the cause end- less; indeed their practice as here related seems in some measure to be liable to that *- ** * . . . w - objection ; © i i . -#3 242 HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE, objeetion; especially when we learn, that when this conference was not appointed, the parties might have another and another day to bring further witnesses, if they required it, even after the judge had retired, upon bringing pledges into the field for their punctuality, which pledges frequently, if not invariably, were confined in pri- son until the day assigned for hearing further witnesses, or as the Welsh call it “ the day of gaining or losing:” when that day arrived and the witnesses were examined, the pledges were liberated and the judges proceeded to decide in favour of that party with whom the weight of evidence preponderated; if that was doubt- ful from contrariety of testimony or any other cause, the land in dispute was divided into moieties, and assigned, one half to the demandant, and the other share to the defendant. The fee to the chief justice in a cause of this nature was forty eight pence, and to every other judge half as much. I have been thus (perhaps tediously) prolix in describing this form of trial, from its striking resemblance to the practice of arraigning a recovery in the English law; a ceremony which frequently provokes a smile from the unlearned by-stander, and sometimes discomposes the gravity even of a barrister, while he repeats his antiquated lesson in unmeaning monotony. Much learning has been employed to discover the origin of the Eng- lish recovery. Lord chief justice Willes” in a cause referred for the opinion of the twelve judges in 1744, said, that Pigott (who was as able a conveyancer as any man of the profession) had confounded himself, and every body else in his publica- tion upon recoveries.” Whatever difficulties there may be in the explanation of this (at present) fictitious law suit, or as to its legal operation; it is now generally admit- ted that recoveries were first introduced into an English court of justice in the time of Edward the first, though they were very little used, except by the clergy for crafty and subtle purposes, until the reign of Henry the fourth, and about the latter end of Henry the seventh they came into universal practice. The authority to appoint an attorney in a common recovery (called a letter or warrant of attorney) has these remarkable words, “A. B. puts in his place C. D. to gain or lose in a plea of land; when it is arraigned (according to the technical phrase) the council for the demandant begins with saying, “you have here A. B. who demands against C. D. forty messuages, forty mansion houses, forty dwelling houses, forty cottages, &c. &c.; then follows a composition of English, Latin and Norman French, pounded and amalgamated, until it is nearly unintelligible, to the utter astonishment of the ignorant hearer, who perhaps may fancy there is something serious going forward all this time; the learned and redoubtable advocate of the demandant, who here, as in the days of Hywel, addresses the judge, (for no jury is sworn) concludes his - harangue * Wilson's Reports, edition of 1799. p. 73, HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE, 243 harangue in the following words, “and if the said C. D. shall this gain-say you have here the said A. B. (who by the bye is generally out of sight and not in court) who is ready to maintain his writ and right.” In this cause the demandant who condes- cends to lend his name for the benefit of the bar and the conveyancer, is certain of . success, but instead of his lands, or even one half of them, after being hustled from pillar to post, he at last recovers nothing, and the court is supposed to sit slily by, winking at an apparent fraud. - - It is unnecessary to call the reader's attention to the similarity of practice in the Welsh and English laws in these proceedings; from thence it seems probable either that Edward the first borrowed this form from the Welsh in some of his expedi- tions into that country;” in one of which the judges of his bench and the barons of his exchequer attended him, or else if the eeremony now adopted in England be of later date, that Henry the seventh, who had many of our countrymen in his suite, may have introduced it into Westminster hall on their recommendation. There are also many other instances in which the practices of the English and Welsh courts agree, particularly as to the pledges to proceed and defend, the former of whom are known to modern lawyers under the names of John Dóe and Richard Roe, whose tempers and dispositions are the most obliging and accommodating of any men alive; but whose frequent interruptions I could readily dispense with, when I am engaged in pursuits more adapted to my inclination and more suitable to my turn of thinking. - - - - - - - * . . . . By these laws was Wales governed until the Norman, invasion; soon after this event the lords marchers having acquired possessions in the principality, endea- voured to compel the inhabitants to adopt their system or code, which soon became blended and intermixed, not only with the Saxon, but by the adoption (as has been partly seen) of the ancient British laws, from all of which a composition has at last been formed, possessing (it must be confessed) some defects, and creating some tenures inimical, on their early introduction, to our ideas of the liberty of the subject; yet compensating for all their imperfections by the institution of the trial by jury; the advantages of which, the Welsh for a long time obstinately continued to reject, and blindly refused to acknowledge. - - - . . As these lords marchers made so conspicuous a figure in our country, it will here be necessary to take a slight view of their laws and the nature of their government, * before I proceed to notice the English acts and ordinances which sometimes inter- fered to curb the power of these little potentates or to regulate the mode of their judicial proceedings. - - . The * Barr.’s antient Statutes, 1775, p. Its I.i.2. 244 | . HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. - The term or appellation of lords marchers” or barons marchers is a corruption of lords or barons of the marches OT borders .. they Were the most powerful and enter- prising of the Norman nobility; men bound by the strongest ties of interest to the crown of England and consequently those in whom the sovereign placed the most implicit confidence. At first they built strong towns and forts upon the immediate borders, as Bristol, Gloucester, Worcester, Shrewsbury and Chester, which were all garrisoned, as well for their own defence as to annoy the Welshmen. Having seated themselves securely in those strong posts, they next proceeded further into Wales. and possessed themselves of several lordships, as Clifford, Hay, Chepstow, Mon- mouth, Usk, Newport, Abergavenny, Scenfrith, Builth, Brecknock and Radnor: it must not however be understood that this was done all at once, it required much time and was effected by different lords. The earls of Chester and other noblemen did the same in Montgomery, Cedewin, Clum, Os westry, Whittington, Hawarden and Ellesmere; all these and other lands thus conquered by the English lords from the Welsh princes, and held, as they necessarily were, in chief from the crown of England, wherever they lay, were comprehended under the names of lordships marchers, as appears clearly from this circumstance among others, that offices holden of the principality, and all other lordships in Wales were returned into the exche- quer, but, of lordships marchers to Westminster; again it is to be observed that the escheators of the marches of Wales anciently inquired of tenures, and found offices post mortem of the lords of those lordships, and that by virtue of his office, and com- mission, directed to him from the high court of chancery: for as soon as the marches of Wales were wholly subdued and brought to hold of the king of England (such lord- ship, not being in any shire in England, and the king, in consequence, having no escheator to inquire of the tenure there) the escheator of the next English county was also appointed escheator of the neighbouring marches, and so that escheator had the charge, care and survey of all lordships marchers holden of the king, and - by virtue of his office was entitled to enter into any lordship marcher in Wales, to swear an inquest and find an office upon the death of any lord, and to ascertain the value and tenure of his possessions; whereas all offices and other manors holden of the king as of the principality, were found by virtue of wardship or commission issuing out of the king's exchequer at Caernarvon or Chester for North Wales and of the exchequer of C aermarthen or Cardigan for South Wales, or out of Pembroke, - \ - * According to Mr. Owen, in his dictionary, Sawdwr, the present Welsh word for Soldier, means a marcher or borderer. This is ingenious, *. . \e correct; he does not give us the derivä ;he now nearly obsolete word Milwr, but I am V : N -- - • . . for inclined to derive it (though our ancestors were badly armed in early days) from Mael-wr, a man, cased with iron, for I do not recollect the word used by any British author, (if such there be) before the Roman invasion, HISTORY OF BRECKNoCKSHIRE, 24s *~ for lands holden of the king as of the earldom of Pembroke; but always, offices of any antient lordship marcher in Wales holden of the king before the principality came to the crown, were found by writ or commission out of the king's chancery in London, and under the great seal. of England, and the offices found upon the same were returned to that court, of which there are many to be found extant in the tower at this day of every lordship marcher in Wales; from all which it appears that by the term marches of Wales, is to be understood, all Wales subdued by the English lords, and that it was not confined to that part now called the marches, being that next adjoining to England, and thus were the proprietors, first entitled lords of the marches, all called lords marchers wherever their dominions lay in the principality. Thus established, they held their seigniories freely, per baroniam, and exercised upon all occasions an almost sovereign dispensation:-they built castles for their own residence and towns adjoining for their military dependants; from hence alofie we are enabled to account for the many castles and small towns dispersed throughout the whole of Wales. These castellated mansions (many of them of considerable strength) were often irregularly built and upon no certain plan, the 'form depending entirely upon the caprice of the architect, or the circumstances and situation of the ground interided to be occupied. They generally preferred an elevated spot on a knoll above a river (though some are found without any seem- sing attention to these advantages) and the whole building was surrounded with a moat or foss; most of them were provided with an inclosed park, a warren and tract of forest land for the maintenance of their cattle, sheep and pigs, of which * 3they kept 3, large stock. - - e - - . The number of castles in the principality is said to have been about 143, of *these there were thirteen within the small territory of Brecknock, and twenty five at least within the adjoining county of Monmouth. These lordships were totally distinct from any shires, and being subject to the absolute sovereignty of their respective lords were in fact so many imperia in imperio; they had each a palati- nate jurisdiction established within itself; their own mint, their own court, like the king’s at Westminster, and out of their chancery issued ah writs original and judicial. The king's writs were not even current among them, excepting only in Pembrokeshire, which perhaps, having been subjugated at the expence of the crown, was accounted to be a part of England, and therefore called “little Eng- land beyond Wales;” nor were the sheriffs or other officers of the crown per- mitted to execute any such writs or precepts within these precincts, unless when, the whole barony was in question or in cases of high treason. Maddox, in his Haronia Anglica, instances Humphrey de Bohun earl of Hereford as enjoying all 246 - HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. ~# these privileges within his honour of Brecknock, * quoting the decision of a cause (in which the exclusive judicial authority of the lords marchers was maintained) between that nobleman and Roger Mortimer of Blanllyfni; so that all manner of indictments and processes were made in the name, and every trespass was laid to be done against the peace of the special lord, who was also, as appears by a docu- ment in the tower of London,t entitled according to the law and custom of the marches, to all the goods and chattels of persons dying intestate within their jurisdiction. . * --- - The first grand object of the marchers after their settlement in the country was to reduce the inhabitants to a peaceable acquiescence with the English form of government. All Welsh customs as well as the language were to the utmost dis- couraged: the Norman English laws were introduced and for the most part ad- ministered; their tenures were principally English or Norman, being transmitted by fine, recovery, feoffment and livery of seizin. Some lords however, from mo- tives of prudence, permitted their Welsh tenants to enjoy many of their ancient laws when they were not repugnant to the laws of England, or injurious to their own interest. Among other concessions in their favour was the permission of the usage of gavelkind and the transfer of land by the surrender in court, agreea. bly to the laws of Hywel Dda; this they called. Cof-Llys ac Ysdyn Wialen; the first term signifying the recollection or evidence of the court or judges concerning causes or questions determined before them, as well as of transfers of lands thus publicly made, and the second phrase means an investiture by extending or deli- vering a rod to a person when he took possession of an estate. In some of the Welsh lordships the Normans continuing this Welsh ceremony, ingrafted upon it one of the tenets of the feodal system, that the property of the soil was originally. in the lord, and by him granted to his tenants for their lives only, under certain. services; that upon the death of any one of them, though they usually admitted his heir; yet they were not bound to do so, and acting under this, impression, some of them took very heavy fines for the investiture by the rod to the estate of the father; this was considered so great a grievance in the hundred of. Builth for- - merly, that several of the tenants there compounded with the lords for the ex- emption from this fine, by the payment of an annual sum, which is known and paid at this day under the term of Tāl di-estyn, or the tax for being exempted, from the payment of the fine on delivery of the rod. It is to be observed that where this custom was permitted, no deeds are to be found in any lands previous to the reign of Hemry the eighth, when Wales was made shire ground, and even so " . . .. . . . - -- late. * Appendix, No. XII. * Anno 26, Ed, 3d. p. 2. m. 13. in dorso et Escart. Anno 28, Ed. 3, m, 61. HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. 24% late as the middle of the seventeenth century, it appears by a recital in a will in the register office at Brecon, that lands in Llanwrthwl in the hundred just mentioned, were conveyed by one person to another without writing, for a valua- ble consideration, “according to the ancient manner, in the presence of three or four neighbours;” whereas for lands held under English tenures, deeds remain. dated as far back as the reign of Edward * the first. * . . . . In some lordships there were two courts, one for the English inhabitants called Englischeria, or the ` rights of an Englishman, and Wallescheria, or the rights of a Welshman, the former was abolished in the fourteenth of Edward the third. Mr. Gough t observes, that strictly speaking both these - terms were applied to the untimely death of any person, and if he was not known, or the manner of his death notorious, an inquisition was to be made whe- ther he was an Englishman or a Welshman, upon which the coroner and his jury were to determine super visum corporis. Our lawyers: derive the origin of En- glischerie from an ancient law of Canute, who being about to leave the kingdom, and afraid the English might take advantage of his absence to oppress and destroy his native subjects, procured the following law, in order to prevent homicides; that when any person was killed and the slayer escaped, the person killed should always be considered as a Dane, unless proved by his friends or relations to be English, and in default of such proof, that the ville should pay forty marks for the Dane's death, and if it could not be raised within the ville, that then the hundred should pay it; this singular but oppressive provision, it was thought, would engage every one in the prevention or prosecution of such secret offences. It is probable that the presentments of Welsherie were founded on a like policy. - There were also in some lordships a mixture or jumble of the laws of both countries; thus Leland tells us, that “Blain Leveni, (Blänllyfni in Breconshire) though it be in Welsche Talgarth, yet the tenants kepe the Englische tenure.” So also in English and Welsh Penkelley, English and Welsh Hay and many others, lands are frequently said to be holden by English tenure, but by Welsh Dole; Cyf. fraith Saesmeg a rhan Cymraeg, and here the lord had the wardship of all the chil. dren, both sons and daughters; in many lordships none of the Welsh customs were permitted to be retained, but the English laws entirely prevailed; the whole juris- prudence in fact depended upon the will of the first conquerors. . - - The * 1. have a conveyance executed in this reign in Llangattock of the fee of Gweruvale, bearing from one Sollers to Brett, of the mansion and lord- date 11th Ed. 2d, which is now in the possession ship of Porthamlin Breconshire. It is remarkable of the Rev. H. T. Payne of Llanbedr. that the arms on the seal appendant to this deed f Camden, vol. 2. p. 401. - are born quarterly: the late Mr. Henry Williams of # Reeve's history of English Law, vol. 1. p. 17. Crickhowell had also a deed of conveyance of lands - . — — - *As HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. The lords marchers increased in number until the final reduction of Wales by king Edward the first, when soon after the death and defeat of Llewelyn the last prince of . Wales of the British race, the heir apparent of England was substituted in his room, though Sir John Doddridge says, Edward the first claimed it by a grant from his father, and even expressed his displeasure at Llewelyn's being permitted to hold the title, which produced the following rebuke from Henry. *Quid ad me? Terra tua est, ex dono meo ; exere vires primitivas, famam excita juvenilem, utte de coetero timeant Inimici, me autem alia negotia detinent occupatum.” This sharp reproof (which however is too dignified for the mouth of the feeble Henry the third) instantly determined Edward to commence and persevere in the con- quest, to secure which when obtained, his first care was to regulate the judicial proceedings of the country, for this purpose he directed inquiries upon oath to be made before certain commissioners with the bishop of St. David's at their head, into all the ancient laws and usages of the principality: the certificate and returns. thereupon made, are printed in the appendix to Hywel Dda's laws; they contain much curious and valuable information, but are too long for insertion in a work of this nature, where the subject is unavoidably likely to extend itself further than. was at first intended. . . t . - - - - After the statute of Rhuddlan no lordship marcher was created, nor could any individual assume to himself any liberty, privilege or prerogative which he did. not possess previous to that act, otherwise than by special grant from the crown. of England. It follows then that no lordship marcher could exist, but such as was holden in capite ante conquestum Wallice. it is true that many lords had j u- risdiction royal of their lands, long subsequent to this, but we are not to consider them as lords marchers, but as deriving their privileges under grants or charters, and many of them will be found to have been tenants to the ancient marchers. . The same liberties were also purchased by bishops, abbots and the cells of St. John of Jerusalem, who held.their lordships in Wales as the antient dowers of . their sees and abbies, and never came to the same by conquest like the lords, marchers; they frequently held them under the free gift of the antient princes and . reguli of the country, subject to the legal jurisdiction of their patrons; such for . instance was the tenure by which the bishops of St. David's held the castle and manor of Llanddew in Breconshire. Upon the expulsion of the Welsh chiefs by the Normans, these religious, equally with the lay marchers, assumed a royal .. power, though they were afterwards obliged to compromise for those liberties with the crown: this appears from the charter of Richard the second to Adam - ... • bishop a ^ * Mathew Paris, p. 914. HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. 349 bishop of St. David's; the words are these; “ut cum ipse episcopatum suum et quamlibet parcellam ejusdem de nobis, ut de coroná nostra integrè teneat, ipseq. et predecessores sui episcopi loci illius jurisdictione regali in omnibus dominis suis episcopatus predict, et utin cognicionibus Omnimodorum placitorum persona- lium et realium ac de coroná, ad prosecutionem suam propriam ac aliorum cum omnibus proficuis inde provenientibusjuxta consuetudines partium illarum totis retroactis temporibus usi fuerunt et gayisi absº. hoc quod mos Seu genitores nostri seu aliquis alius dominus marchice aut eorum ministri racione aliquorum domi- norum in Wallia infra dicta dominia ipsius episcopi aliqualiter intromittere con- sueverint debuimus aut debeant.” From hence it is clear that the bishops of St. David's before any charter obtained, had assumed to themselves the exercise of jura regalia and the same authority in all things, as the lords marchers, and pre- scribed to hold cognizance of pleas between their tenants and dependants, which by the laws of England they were not entitled to do; so that if in the antient times of the princes of Wales the bishops had not these jurisdictions (which we have no reason to suppose they had) yet it appears from the words of this charter, that after the power of those princes was destroyed in Pembrokeshire, saving the lands of spiritual men (which to invade was reckoned sacrilege) the bishops were under the necessity of assuming that high authority, in order to maintain peace and good government in their territories, and therefore we see that in the reign of Richard the second, the bishops of St. David's used all those privileges by prescription, after the example of their neighbours the lords marchers. It is now however time to look cursorily over the statutes of the king and par- liament of England relative to the affairs of Wales: the first which appears, on this subject, passed in the twelfth year of its conqueror Edward the first; it is called by the Welsh Cyfraith Rhuddlan, and by the English corruptly the statute of Rothelan, and has before been referred to; this was intended principally for the government of that part of the principality which was not under the jurisdiction of the marchers, but it may reasonably be presumed, that where this and other laws of the English court did not affect the power or the revenues of these noble- men, they submitted to their provisions and assimilated the practice of their courts to those in the neighbourhood, as directed by the king and parliament of England. This statute regulates the proceedings in the county and tourn courts; in the list of offences to be inquired of in the latter are some which are very extraordinary; s: de whittanwariis,* scilicet qui coria bovina et equina furata scienter albificant ut --- -- --- . . . * * sic * Whittanwariis I leave to the learned black to say) has of late become a prevailing crime, but jetter gentlemen; perhaps it means whiteñers of it should seem by this statute as if the skin and not wares! Flaying sheep in the night (I am sorry the carcase was the inducement to the theft. K. k 250 HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE, sic non agnoscantur, de redobatoribus pannorum furatorum, eos in novam for- : mam redigentibus et veterem mutantibus ut de mantello tunicam vel supertuni cam facientibus et similia, de tondentibus multones noctanter et eos excoriantibus vel etiam alia animalia;” of those who whiten skins of beasts or horses, knowing them to be stolen, so that they cannot be proved by the lawful proprietors; of those who alter stolen cloaths, as a cloak into a coat or a great-coat and the like, and, of those who shear sheep in the night time and flay them as well as other animals. & ~ This statute proceeds to abolish compurgation in criminal cases as well as in causes with respect to lands, but allows it in all others, if the inhabitants of the country wish it to be continued. To this mode of acquittal, which was in ge- meral use with the Welsh and to which they were extremely partial for many succeeding centuries, there may be great and material objections, but it has also some considerable advantages, particularly in cases where no other proof can be adduced, and though we have now rejected it in our common law courts, it still is constantly resorted to in equity. It is said, that it is an inlet and temptation to perjury, but when it was attended with the precaution used among the Britons. who required sometimes twelve, sometimes twenty-four, and sometimes forty- eight neighbours to swear they believed that what the accused person or de- fendant deposed was true, it must be admitted that every prudent measure was taken to guard against the mischiefs to be apprehended, and that a notoriously #bad man could not easily, perhaps not possibly, procure so many persons of cha- ... . racter to support his credit. The remains of this practice still lurks among us in our county court in Breconshire, though I believe it is now peculiar to this coun- *:: ty; it is called purgation by the common rule: a notice is sent (after the entry of the first summons and appearance of the defendant) that if the supposed debtor.” will not swear that he is not indebted to the plaintiff, he (the plaintiff) will prove & A his demand against him upon his own oath, to the honour of human nature and of the country, I am proud to say, that many, very many instances have oc. curred within my knowledge, where though the debtor was too poor to pay, he WaS to O honest to deny a just demand upon oath, and though (until a late act) the horrors of a gaol stared him in the face, and frequently the support of a nu- merous family depended upon his labour, he has nobly resisted these heart- breaking calls, rather than desert his principles or appeal to his maker to attest a falsehood. • * ‘. . . Barrington, in a note to his observations on the antient statutes says, this act recites the total conquest of Wales; in this he is not perfectly correct: the preamble g * , -, - State; HSTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. £2.5i Aº f . - f 5 tº : states, that “Wales which was formerly subject by feodal right to the crown of En- gland was then by the mercy of Providence converted and united to the same, as a part or member of it; ” but the lordships marchers at this time formed no part of the country here said to be thus united; those who then ruled over these possessions considered them as their own private property, having been acquired by their own valour, and that of their followers totally independent of the crown of England, nor did they acknowledge themselves to be English subjects, further than in respect to their estates in that country; Edward perceived this, and endeavoured to lessen their power and curb their insolence, but without effect. About the latter end of his reign he took occasion to question some of their tenures, claims and privileges by a quo warranto; earl Warren,*one of the principal of these noblemen very sig- nificantly clapped his hand upon his sword and said; “by this warranty did my ancestors win my lands, and by this do I hold them.” The king, finding all the other barons determined to support him, felt the force of the argument and did not think it prudent to dispute the validity of the warranty. Nothing further passed relative to the affairs of Wales, until the fifteenth of the reign of Edward the third, when the king; in the parliament held at Westminster in that year, created his eldest son. Edward (the black prince) prince of Wales, in- vesting him. “ per sertum in capite et annulum in digito aureum ac virgam argen- team juxta morem,” and afterwards endowed. him with all manors, lordships, castles and lands appertaining to the principality as well as the forfeited lands of Rhys ap' Meredith, which in the reign of Edward the first had escheated to the erown by his rebellion. In the twenty eighth of Edward the third, an act was passed, determining that all the lords marchers of Wales should be perpetually attending and annexed to the crown of England, as they and their ancestors were at all times past, and not to the principality of Wales, in whose hands soever they should be, or thereafter should come. In this the king seems to have had two ob- jects, first to convince those haughty subjects, that he was entitled to, and deter- mined to enforce their allegiance, and secondly, to avoid throwing too much power into the hands of the heir apparent, or the person who might become prince of Wales; for he appears to have in contemplation the possibility of that dignity being dissevered from the crown; perhaps on the death of his eldest son, his grandson being very young, he may have intended it for one of his other sons, though he afterwards relinquished the idea. 1. * . in the reign of this king, an exact survey was made of all the lands of the princi- pality, by commissioners specially appointed by the crown, for the purpose of assigning a proper dower for the black prince's widow, but as the profits were . - - found * . . . . + Hist. of the lord's marchers, Lond, 1779, p. 19. 2 K. k 252 History of BRECKNOCKSHIRE, found to be of uncertain value, varying according to the circumstances of the times, it became necessary, in order to makea.just estimate, to form an average on the aggregate of three years; the commissioners took the years 47, 48 and 49 of this reign, when it appeared that the sum total of the revenues of Wales amounted to £4681. 18s. 6d. - - - . º After this reign no laws were enacted by the English parliament to affect Wales, until the time of Henry the fourth, who, goaded and teized by the rebellion of Glyndw'r and by the support received by Richard the second from the Welsh, was so exasperated with those “barefooted rascals,” whom he affected at one time to despise, that he prohibited any one of that country from wearing arms, buying lands in the neighbouring counties of England, assembling together without leave, - having any house of defence, (except a bishop) or holding any office in his own country, he enacted that no Englishman should be condemned at the suit of a Welsh* - man, but by an English jury, that no Englishman marrying a Welshwoman should hold any office there; in short he appears to wish he could prevent them from eating, by prohibiting the importation of any victuals into Wales: it is true that these statutes were : very seldom acted upon, and all of them (one only excepted, hereafter to be mentioned) were wiped off the statute book by the general spunge in the time of James the first, but the king who could recommend, and the senators who could assist in enacting such oppressive and iniquitous laws mistook their abilities as wellas situations, when they fancied themselves wise legislators or sound . politicians, and were better calculated to occupy stalls in Carnaby Market, or Billingsgate Street, than the palace at Westminster or the seats in St. Stephen's chapel. - - . . . . . . There is a statute enacted in this reign still remaining unrepealed, which is perhaps not perfectly, or at least not generally understood; it is in the following words (let not the reader be alarmed when he is told he is going to hear the whole of it—it is not quite as long as a modern land-tax act); * “item to eschew many diseases and mischiefs which may have happened before this time in the land of Wales by many wasters, rhymers, minstrels and other vagabonds: it is or- dained and stablished that no waster, rhymer,t minstrel, nor vagabond t be in any wise sustained in the land of Wales to make comorthies or gathering on the com- r } - mon * 4 H. 4, c. 27. - - , - - + "Every liberal mind must lament that this act ever don't seem inclined to avail themselves of the still remains unrepealed as it may affect many of benefit of this law against vagaboids / Seriously burwandering neighbours who now and then come this prohibition against rhymers and minstrels was 3down among us to make a gathering upon the extremely prejudicial to our poetry and musie, sommon people of this country: the Welsh how- * - * .* ~ HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE, 253 mon people there.” Barrington” translates westours, (as in the Norman French) by wasters, and quotes Minshen to prove that it means players at wasters, or cud- gellers, “but (says he) an ingenious correspondent rather supposes that it means wrestlers, from the waste or loins!” Very ingenious indeed Mr. Barrington but unfortunately this very ingenious correspondent is as much mistaken as to its meaning here as Minsheu; for I do not deny but there may be an obsolete. English word of the same import as is explained by the lexicographer; but waster in this statute, which is also written westour, is a corruption of the Welsh gwestwr frequently (according to a well known rule in orthography) spelt westwr, º it signifies a guest, an unbidden visitor, one who goes from house to house, de- manding provisions or purveyance for the king or prince or under some such pre- tence. The laws of Hywel Dda frequently mention, gwesdfa'r Brenhin, the Ring's right of purveyance and regulate the mode of collecting it: the gwestwr, westwr or waster was the officer who was employed upon this occasion and went about eating and drinking at the expence of the public and afterwards procuring food and supplies for his master. Cymorthies or cymorth (again) is as little understood in general as waster, though Barrington has been more successful than before. Cymorth signifies an aid or assistance by contribution, t cymortha is the verb to seek assistance by contribution, and cymörthau is the plural of the sub- stantive; but the cymorthies levelled at by this statute were only the remains of the clera or clych clera of the antient bards, which has been already spoken of In the reign of Henry the fourth this order was sunk so much in point of rank and respectability as to be classed with vagabonds by the Normans and Saxons; . * Owen Glyndw’r however who admired theircompositions and knew how politically - advantageous they might be made to him, endeavoured to restore them to their antient privileges and dignity; this was sufficient to make such a description of ºmen odious to Henry the fourth, and it is by no means improbable, as Barrington has hinted, that they were employed at this time in rousing the martial spirit of the ...Welsh, oras he expresses it in “collecting tumultuous assemblies,” and Owen Glydwr s may have also engaged gwestwyr or purveyancers to collect provisions and money for his wars; but enºr English lawyers have fallen into a mistake when they sup- pose every species of cymorth to be illegal and to have been prohibited by this statute, as well as by another passed in the twenty-sixth of Henry the eighth; if these laws are so construed they go the length to wipe off all chief-rents, heriots, alienations, and all other payments of feodal or Norman origin, all of which are in the nature of aids or assistances to the lords, and all of which may, and indeed - generally * Ant. Stat, p. 360. + Owen sub, verb, - : 264 HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE, generally are literally translated into Welsh by cymorth.* These increased payments, now called cymortha, due every two or three years are known and have been uniformly and regularly paid in almost all lordships in Breconshire, as, well as the principality and are a commutation for particular services at different periods, as assisting to keep in repair the lord's castles, providing food, in rotation. for his hounds or hawks or some other duties of the like nature. . . . . . . . Henry the fifth, following the narrow policy of his father, in the first year of his reign passed, or at least sanctioned a very severe law against the Welsh; though, from the support he received from our countrymen, Sir David Gam, Sir Roger Vaughan, and their adherents at Agincourt, his senti ments were considerably altered. in their favour before he died: this statutet recites :that “Welshmen pursued. Englishmen for the death of their friends by indictments, accusements or impeache, ments, and some by menaces and distresses, and some by taking their bodies and imprisoning them till they made them gree to them or excused themselves by one. assache; after the custom of Wales, that is to say, by the oath of three hundred. men; it is therefore ordained that no such quarrel, action or demand be made by: the rebels or their adherents, be he cousin, ally or friend, under pain of treble- damages Of imprisonment for two years, and to make fine and ransom for his de- livery; so that the effect of this law as far as it is prohibitory in the first part of the enacting clause, was to shut the courts of justice against inquiries into any enormi. ties committed by the English in Wales during the rebellion, as it is called, and, the mischief complained of in the latter part of the sentence is difficult to be un- derstood ; perhaps the Welsh still continued to require the galands or compensations for murder, and the offender when taken, was imprisoned 'till he paid it, unless he, could get three hundred persons to prove his inability to discharge it; but if the grievance intended to be remedied, is not stated with sufficient precision and clear- mess, the term of purgation here introduced bafflès every conjecture as to etymology: among Welshmen.” Assache is not found in Hywel Ddda or any other code of British, laws now extant. Spelman, who is copied by Du Fresne and referred to by the learned Dr. Geo. Hicks, says, “Assath, sic in vetusto impresso codice; in MS. uno. assaith, in altero (sed omnino mendose) assautour, quibusdam Assach, purgatio. erat apud Wallos, scil. Cambro Britannos qua 300 sacramentalibus, h. compur- gatoribus reus se liberabat. Mos invaluit usque statutum I H. 5. c. 6. ubi in pos-- terum fieri prohibitum est, quid vocabulum velit, dicant: Cambro Britanni nostri. * ..& * * . t **- *The Welsh have no. other word for chief refit: † : What Assach means—let the Cambro Britons *. they now make use of the English word for the an- tell.”. You're right, most learned Spelman. You. nual and cymortha for the biennial or triennial have posed them. After setting them upon the increased payments. . . . . . . . - scent; the moment they have started; he proceeds- # 1 H. 5, c. 6. .. to tell his readers that the word is Saxon. *1 :- t ...it §: .* wº. ' - HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIR£. * ~ 233 * r * * *. * exparteautemsapere vidētur Saxonicuingham Ath estius urandum’et rach, causa.” In a note upon this word in Dr. Hicks, Disserat Epist. Barth. Shower, p. 35, we have, “Assathiuasi anprace; Negatio Abnegatio Exgtisationet as juraméâtüm,' Sacramentum; Assath ergo est.juramentum quo quis &hstrictus, crimen solemniter. abnegat cujus accusatusest et sacramentali umºetiam juramentis siquando requisitus 'se ab & purgaſ.” & Blöunt, in his law dictionary. ears.Assadh a. strange Kind of pur- agation in Wales by the oath of three hundred menšfor so says he'ſ find the word * in antient'MSS. “Assach estjur. de 306 Hommes en Gales:” the same explanation is given by Cowel, but neither of them attempt. to define or derive the word; it is 3. owever probably Saxºn, as, it has not the appearance of a native of Wales. -* É £,Yº. * * Edward Eloyd and Richards gall it, an obsolete British word, signifying, the same sagºthaith; upon the authority of Henry Salsbury, but if that be correct, how comes & ºwe do not find it in the laws of Hywel Dda, where, when this compurgation by $." ihree hundred men is mentioned, Elw and got Assach, is used: in the sixth chapterof ; the third book, the nine modes of becoming accessary to murder are recapitulated; in them there seem to be distinctions without differences, but for the three last of : these mine it is said “am běb un o'r tri hymny; Elw ifehannwr a. ddaw 'nai dri naw º gaito ariant od gdàefir,” to acquit a person accused of these three erimes, the oath . of three hundred ñen must be adduced, but if he confesses either of them, a fine i. of three times one hundred and eighty pence must be paid: in book the fourth, , k- page 363, triad 158, section 6, it is said “Raith” Gwlad yw Elw dengwyr a deu- ... gain o wyr tirawg day y brenin, “the oath according to the common law of the land, is the oath of fifty persons holding lands under the king; so that upon the . • whole, it may safely be asserted, that the word is not of British ſorigin, or we should #ave preserved it either in conversation or in some of our antient British MSS. or * Had the statute abolishing the assache stopped there, or had it been satisfied # with preventing the Welshmen from taking the law into their own haids, (to use §a familiar phrase) by imprisoning the subjects of the king of England, until they *. : ** —t 4 r wº- * * > . “f* , * 3. . * *& a f #º. ." * * ... extorted heavy fines from them, the Welsh would have had no cause of complaint * *— ---.” **#. X # 4. * ** º- c.4 ° against the parliament for their interference to prevent the mischief, but to permit. - 2. & * * * `;.... § – lº... }, ... ºf - nº e £ an enemy. merely because he happened to be born on the Eastern side of the Wye *or the Severn, toindulge in the passions of revengešr malice with impunity (for * -> v_. * ; * * * **, ** .* * * w 2-& *ś . * º 3. * e *. •. * such might have been the effect of a law at a time when the accusation of an En- ºr . ... & ſ: -R * ..". - .* t %, . * . . . . ." § º "w- ! * † ; : * . º r * •º, •ºr * * --- *: ... • * : ... " & .* .. *. **# ,' * * *. i. glish II] an º ~~ a º: * A .* . -> * . ºr * ºn "ºt ** i. * * $. ** s º * A ription was made in theºreign of Henry opposed, for no act passed in consequence of it the sixth, to abolish the Rhaith or compurgation, for that purpose. Humé's history of England. : py three-hundred, but it was either relinquished of " . . * $3' * £º: x *: # * + * ... ' ^- '• * . . . . *...* **ś - * , • ?" -. s * 2. * *$-,+, •. T.R.' $ſ. ; , .. * *. * * * ºs * *~ * - *- & ‘. **, * * , 256 . . . . . HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. . . . . glishman fixed the crime of rebellion upon a Welshman) was legalizing murder and adding oppression. to cruelty and injustice. ‘...' _{e- .3 s • * f." Whatever might have been the cause of offence given to “the meek usurper.” three or four severe and impolitic acts were directed against the Welsh in his reign, which do no great credit either to the heads or the hearts of the legislators rº- of that time; by the first, *, the benefits of an useful and equitable law for rectify- ing errors in judicial proceedings were confined to England exclusively; by the second, f it was declared to be high treason to take the person or goods of an En- glishman, and to carry them into Wales until they were made to gree, and by anº: ther actſ of the same reign to take and carry away the goods of an Englishman: under colour of distress was made felony, and lastly, all thè laws theretofote made 's against the Welshmen were confirmed, and all grants of fairs.and markets to persons g of that country annulled. The house of Mortimer had, it is true, great possessions, and a considerable party of adherents in Wales and the marches, but the name of Tudor (which family after the marriage of Owen with the king's mother became his warm friends and partizans) was equally respectable, and the followers, and, dependants of that house were also asºn umerous, if not more so than those9f thº. other faction; besides it must be observed that the contest between the houses of. York and Lancaster, which afterwards produced such afflicting consequences, to the nation, and wrote its history in such bloody characters, as centuries were not able entirely to efface, did not break out into open violence until after the last of. these opprobrious acts was passed: to the history of England we have recourse in vain to discover the motives which dictated them, nor are they more clearly or perfectly fraced from any other source of information, unless we admit with War. rington $,0'ho with some degree of probability asserts it). that, “the manners of the Welsh nation during this and the two preceding reigns, actuated by few: other springs than their passions, restrained by no regular police, no longer aniss mated by the presence of their princes, nor their minds softened by the influence - of native arts, had degenerated into the deepest ferocity;” yet even in this case, it is to be lamented that the English did not rather attempt to convert the longº subsisting enmity between the two countries into friendship, by adopting mild and lenient measures; than by continuing to preserve and continue it by san- guinary and oppressive laws. . ". . ~ * . - b. * 4- * + *3. *, *** ... During the intestine broils which convulsed the English nation for twenty years and upwards, after the death" or murder of Henry the sixth, both Yorkists and . . . . . . *, , , , * Lancastrians * 4 H.6, c. 23. # 20 H, 6, c. 3. f 28 H. 6, c. 4. * i $ History of Wales, vol.2, p. 800. London 1791, p. 347. - . .” ~ t - *- * .** §: “, s ** A. HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE, 257 Lancastrians were too busily engaged in the destruction of each other to bestow any part of their attention or their time upon the inhabitants of Wales; during this period therefore they were permitted to drag after them those chains only which were forged for them in the preceding reigns; but it is very extraordinary that Henry the seventh, their countryman (as he called himself when he thought it his interest to do so) who upon some occasions boasted of his descent from the antient Britons and ordered genealogists to trace his pedigree and to preserve the line and names of his ancestors in that country, should yet not have made one effort to lighten their fetters or to redress their grievances; the principality is not even mentioned or the inhabitants noticed in any statute passed in his reign, ex- cepting in one, allowing them to import wine of Gascony or Guienne in common with their fellow subjects of England or Ireland.” Our dread sovereign Henry the eighth (the first who took that title t—and who well deserved it) the son and successor of the cold blooded Richmond, whom nothing could move but interest and nothing stimulate but avarice made us ample amends for the inattention and apathy of his father, and may with much greater propriety (without insisting too stiffly upon the high value or worth of his intentions) be styled the Welsh, than Edward the first, the English Justinian, the title lord Coke confers upon him. Edward certainly did much to soften the rigour and ameliorate the English laws, consideri ng the days in which he lived, but Henry the eighth modelled, perfected and indeed almost created a system of jurisprudence, out of a jumble of incoherent, jarring and confused customs, the progeny of differ- ent times and countries, and established a code which, as it was earnestly sought f for by the Welsh, has been cheerfully obeyed from that day to the present and which has reconciled us by a complete participation of all the privileges of English- men, to the entire theory, and nearly to the practice of the laws of England, hitherto imperfectly known to us and therefore only partially adopted or approved of. During the cessation of legislative as well as military hostilities, enjoyed by the Welsh after the death of Henry the sixth, until the middle or latter end of this - - - * reign * Dr. Powel, in his history of Wales, says, Hen- f Barrington's antient statutes. ry the seventh granted a charter of liberties to his #Seelord Herbert of Cherbury's history of H. 3, Welsh subjects; I should be glad, for his credit, te p. 371, and Warrington's history of Wales. The discover it; but I have not been fortunate enough manly and nervous style, which the petition of to meet with it in any author, in Rymer's Faedera the inhabitants of Wales to Henry the eighth dis- or among those documents in the tower which I plays, and the good sense and Sound policy there- have seen, though I have copies of some and re- in apparent, do immortal honour to the inhabi- ferences to most, if not all of them relative to the tants of that country who were employed in pro- affairs of Wales. posing, framing and presenting that document. Ll 258 HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE, reign, they were (as usual) employed in intestine feuds and contentions among themselves. These unfortunate animosities and sanguinary domestic broils, so far from being checked were promoted by the imbecility of the expiring authority of the lords marchers, which, though despotic, was in some measure necessary for the preservation of the peace and welfare of society; we must not therefore be sur- prised that when the laws of these barons were disregarded with impunity, and no others substituted in their stead, that the inhabitants, subject to no controul, became licentious in their manners, savage and ferocious in their passions, dishonest in their principles, and that of course a wild and frantic spirit of insubordination pervaded the whole principality. * Henry saw the necessity of reforming them; but he very prudently proceeded with caution. * In the twenty first year of his reign, (or thereabouts) he appointed fourteen persons, amongst whom were his secretary Thomas Cromwell, Sir John Porte knight one of the justices of the common pleas, Sir John Hales, Sir John Inglefield one of the barons of the exchequer, William Walwyn and Llewelyn ap Morgan ap Sir David Gam empowering them or any two of them (quorum the said Sir John Porte, f &c. should be one) to act as justices itimerant within the town and lordship of Brecknock, to hear and determine all complaints and suits to be brought before them, according to the laws and customs there used and known. What was done upon this commission, or whether any proceedings were had in consequence of it, cannot be ascertained, but it was very soon afterwards followed by an ordinance, the purport of which it is sometimes difficult to comprehend ; it certainly was intended as a boon to the subject, yet the mischiefs to be remedied, or the benefits to be derived are not always clearly elucidated in this document.: It sets out with directing, that when any person within the town and lordship of Brecknock shall be attached for “suspecyon” of murder, felony or breach of the peace, he may be let to bail, and that upon his appearance to take his trial or upon his entering into sureties for his “good aberyng;” such sureties (in the first case) shall be discharged and in the latter case the principal set at liberty; that when any officer of the crown surmised that a fine was due for a supposed breach of the peace, it should not be levied by distress or the person from whom it was claimed attached, if he brought sureties to abide by the verdict of twelve men impannelled to try him, or by a decree of the court if he confessed his offence. This instrument then proceeds to recite, that in delay of justice, it was customary in this country to challenge jurors as being of kin to one of the parties, and particularly that another challenge was frequently known called veterate, which is explained to mean “olde 7°C/3C07"roll.S. * Appendix, No. XIII. f Llewelyn ap Morgan was not of the quorum. - # Appendix, No. XIV. HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. - 259 - rancorrous malice,” supposed to be entertained by a juror, not because one of the parties or his ancestors had slain one of the relations of the challenged, but because the juryman or one of his ancestors within the fourth degree of marriage had murdered or slain one of the Kynne to the plaintiff or defendant within the fourth degree of mar- riage.” To remedy this mischief, the ordinance prohibits any challenges of this nature, unless the person challenged was really and actually by the true line within the fourth degree of consanguinity to one of the said parties,” and the challenge called veterate was disallowed, unless the murder alledged was committed within ten years next preceding the trial, and it was further decreed that every just reason which could be shewn to induce the court to believe that a juror was corrupted or entertained a partiality for either of the parties, should be heard and admitted as a good cause of challenge. - º - - Thus far the subject is favoured, and even what follows seems to have been in- tended, if not to lighten the burdens, at least to facilitate the payment of a debt due from the inhabitants of Brecknockshire to the crown, though how this debt accrued we know not and must be left very much to conjecture, the next clause however provides that the tenants of the town and lordship of Brecon shall pay the king by installments, the sum of three thousand eight hundred and fifty four marks and half of a mark, three shillings and four pence halfpenny farthing for the general pardon granted them under the great seal for the redemption and dissolving of the great sessions in Eyre in the sixth of king Henry the fifth, the eighteenth of Henry the sixth, the twenty third of Henry the seventh and the eleventh of Henry the eighth, and likewise an arrear of one thousand five hundred and thirty seven marks and half a mark and three pence farthing, for the arrears of rents, fee farms and , other dues payable to the crown on certain days annually in this document specified. - - What is here meant by the redemption and dissolution of the great sessions in Eyre, or why the inhabitants should be anxious to purchase an exemption from such a jurisdiction cannot perhaps ever be fully or satisfactorily explained; in all probability the Welsh had an aversion to the English laws introduced by the justices itinerant, particularly as the principal purport of their commission was to inquire into offences surmised to be committed against the crown, and to cause the fines, alledged to be forfeited thereon, to be levied, which was effected in so arbitrary a manner and with so heavy a hand, that the inhabitants were glad to compound by the payment of a sum in gross to be relieved from so oppressive an inquisition, - and *The ordinance is here very confused so that it is by no means clear whether a kindred to the party in court or to the person who committed the murder is intended as a good cause of challenge. Ll 2 360 HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE, and to stand (as the legal phrase is) recti in curia; but from whatever cause this debt arose, the amount appears so enormous in proportion to the number and resources of the tenants and others on whom it was charged, that it is no wonder if not being all paid, though continually demanded by the officers of the crown, this burden produced the insurrection mentioned to have occurred on the death of Elizabeth.* - *- After this follow some directions as to the mode of levying the money and the manner of appointing officers for that purpose, who are generally required to be resident in the lordship. Henry marquiss of Worcester, who is recited to have been steward there for life, by virtue of letters patent from the king, and to have full power and authority to appoint all the officers within that district, is requested, that for the purposes just mentioned, he will permit the king's receiver to name such persons as he may think fit. All the ordinances and “commaundements made by the most excellent prince of noble memorie, king Henry the seventh and the late duke of Buckyngham, and all other lordes marchis in South Walys, for the amendment and avauncement of justice and good rule” are ratified and confirmed, this clause is again succeeded by a number of regulations for securing and bringing to trial felons who fled from one lordship marcher to another, specifying also the penalties upon officers not residing, which it would be tedious here to recapitulate inasmuch as the document copied from the original in the alienation office may be seen in the appendix; but before I dismiss this ordinance, it may be necessary to observe that it contains several other regulations well worthy of the attention of the historian and antiquarian, an inquiry is directed to be made how far it would be beneficial to the crown to appoint an Englishman to be attorney general for South s Wales, and there is also one singular provision included in it which deserves no- tice. “No man shall be of counsayle with any felonye at the corte when such felon is in reignyng or arrayned there, oonles that he may dispende in lands and tenements in freeholde by the yere ten pounds, and if the felon be founde guiltie and cast of the felonie that then the same person counciller, to forfayt to the king's highness all his lands, goods and chattels, or else to make fyne and ransom for his great offence at our said soveryn lord’s pleasure.” . By the English law criminals were not allowed council, and to this day it is a matter of indulgence, though they are now admitted of course when the prisoner requires it, and the humanity of judges has even frequently interfered and assigned council to prisoners unasked; formerly however the case was widely different, and the apologies, for the ancient practice are as absurd as the rule was merciless; let - . - - £13 * Ante, p. 190. HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. 261 - as hear one of them from the mouth of that great luminary of the law, Sir Edward Coke,” “council is refused, (says he) because the evidence to convict a prisoner should be so manifest, as it could not be contradicted.” It was therefore thought too dangerous an experiment to let an advocate try whether it could be contradicted or not!!! Mr. Serjeant Hawkins, in his pleas of the crown,t defends the practice as weakly, though with rather more plausibility. “It requires no manner of skill to make a plain and honest defence, which in cases of this kind is always the best ; the simplicity and innocence, the artless and ingenuous behaviour of one whose con- science acquits him, having something in it more moving and convincing than the highest eloquence of persons speaking in a cause not their own.” Cruel as this reasoning was, it should seem, that it was adopted by the Welsh as well as the English courts of justice; this clause therefore may have been intended to prevent a prisoner's receiving the assistance and advice of council upon his trial, unless some person of wealth and respectable rank in life was so thoroughly convinced of his jnnocence as to undertake his defence at the risk of the whole of his property. Thank God, this inhuman and sanguinary logic no longer disgraces our courts of judicature, and I cannot but lament that it is preserved in our books, it will how- ever (it is to be hoped) in the course of a few years become as inexplicable and as obsolete as the ordinance of Henry the eighth, which has been just now quoted. In a very short time after the will of our dread sovereign had been signified to the inhabitants of Brecknockshire, in the manner I have related, an act of parliament : passed, which recites “that for lack of diligence and sure custody of jurors SWOrn for trials of murder, &c. in Wales and the marches of the same, the friends and kinsmen of the accused frequently tampered with the jury, and suborned them to . procure an acquittal;” for remedy whereof it was enacted that an officer should be deputed and sworn by the court before whom the offender was tried, truely and diligently to keep the same jury and not to suffer meat, drink or fire to be ministered to them without leave of the court, and that he would not suffer any person to speak to them, or speak to them himself without the like permission, unless to ask. whether they were agreed upon their verdict, and if any juror who acquitted a felon and gave an untrue verdict against the king, contrary to good and pregnant evidence, or eat, drank or spoke to any other person than the officer so sworn, the lord presi- dent and other the council of the marches had power to bind him over to appear before them to take his trial for such offence and upon conviction to fine and imprison The next acts in the same year recites the frequency of robberies in Gloucester- * 3 Instit. 137. * Vol. 2, p. 564. $ 26 H. 8, c. 4. § C. 5, *62 HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. - shire and Somersetshire by the inhabitants of South Wales, and that the stolen goods were conveyed across the Severn by the passages or ferries of Aust, Framiload, &c.; to prevent which mischief, barge-masters are prohibited from carrying goods, or persons of this description and all others who being unknown to them, refused to discover their names and places of abode before sun-rise or after sun-set. : This statute is followed by another,” describing the Welsh of that day in language in which it is to be hoped their crimes are exaggerated, though 1 fear they were at this time in a very uncivilized state and the offences of robbery and murder too prevalent in the country: the preamble tells us, that “the people of Wales and the marches of the same, not dreading the good and wholesome laws of this realm, had of long time continued in the perpetration and commission of divers and manifold thefts, murders, rebellions, wilful burning of houses, and other scelerous deeds and abominable malefacts to the high displeasure of God and the inquietation and distur- bance of the public weal, which malefacts and scelerous deeds were so rooted and fixed in the same people, that they were not likely to cease unless some sharp cor- rection and punishment for redress and amputation, was provided according to the demerit of the offenders;”for remedy whereofit is thereby enacted, that every person dwelling in Wales, shall, upon monition or warning given of the time of holding courts there, appear before the justice, steward, lieutenant or other officer, at all and every sessions in any castle, fortress or place, there to do and execute such things which to him affere or appertain.t The second section in part discloses the oppressions practised by the officers of the lords marchers upon the inhabitants of Wales; for it recites that they had often and sundry times theretofore exacted of the king's subjects within such lordships where they had rule and authority, and also committed them to strait duress and imprisonment for small, light and feigned causes and extortions and compelled them thereby to pay unto them fines for their redemption ; it is therefore provided that if any officer of a lord marcher: by untrue surmises commit, any person to duress or imprisonment, the king's commissioners and council of the marches upon suit made and good proof that there were no just grounds for confinement, may order satisfaction to the party injured. It is remarkable that in the preamble to the next statute § relative to the affairs of Wales, appointing justices of peace in that country, which recapitulates the enormities committed in many counties in the principality, the counties of Breck- . . . . . . hock # C. 6. *_ + This is the origin of the present legal fiction, that every individual is present at each great sessions held in and for the county in which he or she resides. : No punishment attaches upon an officer of the crown guilty of a similar offence. § 27 H. 8, c. 5. - HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE, $245 nock, Radnor and Monmouth are omitted in the black catalogue of malefactors; this part of Wales therefore was either more civilized, or, as is more probable, the lordships marchers or the greatest part of them being in the possession of the crown of England, they were secured in their obedience, and their ferocity effectu- ally restrained by the laws or troops of that monarch. . This act is immediately succeeded by another, * which recites a very extraordi- nary custom in the forests of Wales, and which is thereby prohibited in future; it states the usage to be, that “if any of the king's subjects fortuned to pass, go or ride through the said forests, not having a token delivered him by the chief foresters, rulers or walkers (such person not being a yearly tributor or chemser,t he was obliged to pay the forester, &c. a grievous fine, and if taken, found or espied twenty four feet out of the highway, he forfeited all the gold he had about him, and was liable to lose a joint of one of his hands, or to pay a fine at the will of the forester; and also, that if stolen cattle were brought or strayed into the forest, the officers had a right to seize and detain them as their perquisites; so that the owners (as the statute observes) had no remedy or mode to recover them, but by way of redemption or buying again of their own property. These were certainly unrea- sonable and iniquitous customs, yet the reader who will have recourse to the for rest laws in the reigns of our early Norman conquerors, will see many of a similar description, and their long continuance in Wales can only be attributed to the less advanced state of civilization of the inhabitants of that country. - Hitherto Henry seems to have had in contemplation only the redress of partial grievances, but the experience of the inadequacy of the laws hitherto provided, as well as the political and commercial benefits likely to result to both countries, loudly called for their incorporation as the most effectual expedient to prevent in future those disgraceful outrages which characterized the principality, and to reconcile the inhabitants to a prompt obedience to the laws of the empire: in the twenty seventh year, therefore of this monarch's reign passed the act of union or annexation of Wales to England, which begins with asserting the right of the crown . •.. of * C. 7. made a division thereof among their soldiers, and + Chensers, such as paid tribute or cense, quit- rent or chiefrent, farmers or fee-fariners; for so the French censier signifies, says Blount. Cense, rent of assize, quit rent, old rent, chief rent, the first pecuniary charge that is laid on conquered or uninclosed and uncúltivated land, an acknow- ledgment of the direct seigniory of him who grants it. This imposition derived its origin from the first conquest of Gaul by the French, whose princes giving whole territories to their Captains, Y. - the native inhabitants of the country, on condition they would assist and attend them in their wars, which condition being a trust they called a fief: likewise that they should till their lands and pay them such yearly rents for them as they had formerly paid to the Romans, by whom those rents, &c. were termed census. And thus this charge im- posed at first as a resemblance of former servitude, continues to this day a mark of a base and servile tenure, ... • - 264 HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE, of England to the dominion over the principality, with a laboured and pompous though almost ludicrous solemnity. The latter country (it is said) * * justly and righteously is and ever hath been incorporated, annexed, united and subject to the imperial crown of this realm as a very member and joint of the same, whereof the king's most royal majesty, of mere droit and very right, is very head, king, lord and ruler,” yet because “divers rights, usages, laws and customs be far discrepant from the laws and customs of this realm, and because that the people of the same domi- nion have and do daily use a speech nothing like ne consonant to the natural mother tongue used within this realm”, some rude and ignorant people have made distincti- ons between the king's subjects of England and Wales, which has occasioned many quarrels between them, to prevent which in future, the king “of a singular love which he beareth towards his subjects of his said dominion of Wales,” and mind- ing to extend the English laws to that country, and “utterly to extirp” all sinister usages and customs, and to bring the subjects of his realm and the said dominion into amiable concord and unity, with the consent and by the authority of parlia- ment, enacts that from henceforth all persons “born and to be born in Wales shall have, enjoy and inherit all and singular freedoms, liberties, rights, privileges and laws within this his realm, and other the king's dominions as other the king's subjects naturally born within the same, have, enjoy and inherit,” and that all persons inhe- ritable to any manors, lands, tenements, rents, reversions, services or other heredi- taments which shall descend after the feast of all saints next coming (Michaelmas 1635) within the said principality, country or dominion of Wales, or within any particularlordship, part or parcel thereof, shall for ever from and after the said feast, inherit and be inheritable to the same manor, lands, &c. after the English tenure, without division or partition, and after the form of the laws of England and not after the Welsh tenure, or after the form of any Welsh laws or customs, and yet the 35th section of this very statute provides, that when lands in Wales have been immemorially, by the laudable custom of the country departable among issues and heirs male they shall so continue; thus the destructive tenure of gavelkind, inimical alike to domestic happiness and political independence, was permitted to remain until the 34th and 35th tof the same reign, when it was totally abolished in Wales, though it still lingers, in defiance of law, in some places in Glamorganshire. - The third section of the act of union extends the English laws to Wales, and by the fourth, the mischiefs produced by an imperium or rather imperia in imperio - - al’é • 27 H. 8, c. 26. - - &c. in the shires of Wales shal! descend according # It is remarkable that the ninety first section to the common laws of England, and not to ſepart- of this latter statute, which was intended to cure able among issues and heirs male after the customs a blunder in the twenty seventh of the same reign, of gavelkind. V. also s. 128 as to the abolition is not worded grammatically “all manors, lands, of this tenure. - - HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE, 263 are recited. The lords marchers exercising an unlimited and oppressive au- thority over their vassals, frequently at variance with the crown and each other and jealous of their seignioral rights, were deaf to the claims of justice or true po- licy, and blind to the interests of society at large; insomuch that they even en- couraged outlaws and protected thieves and murderers, provided they were per- mitted to partake of the plunder;" yet still the legislature seems to have proceeded with caution and to have been apprehensive of giving offence to some noblemen who possessed seignioral rights in Wales; for the statute provides that every per- son, then being a lord marcher, shall have a moiety of the fines and forfeitures imposed on his tenants and the mises and profits due from them, and shall also hold courts and law days as in times past; though their lordships merged and were constituted into parts of the counties in which they were situated or to which they adjoined, * - From the description here given of what was thence forward to be consi- dered as the county of Brecon, we learn what were then denominated the marches in that neighbourhood. The names of places are horridly mispelt in this act, but as written at this day they appear to consist of the following districts or parishes; Brecknock (meaning the town of that name and its vicinity). Crickhowel, Tretower, Penkelley, English Talgarth, Welsh Talgarth, Dinas, Glynbwch, Can- treff-selyff, Llan ddew, Blanllyfni, Ystradyw, Builth and Llangorse: these are all by this iaw made an integral and indivisible part and parcel of the county of Brecknock: it is further enacted, that Brecknock shall be considered as the shire-town, that the county court shall be held there, and in order to save the inhabitants the trouble and expence of making their payments to the crown at Westminster, a court of chancery and exche- quer was appointed to be held at the king's castle of Brecknock, where the sheriffs of Breconshire and Radnorshire were to account before his auditor or proper officer. This law is still acted upon, and the auditor attends in October annually to receive- the fines and rents due to the crown, although since the demolition of the castle the audit is held in one of the principal inns in the town. Some further enact- ments follow, such as, that two members shall be chosen to sit in the English par. liament for Monmouthshire, and one for the borough, one for each county in Wales and one for each borough there, being a shire town ; the king was . - - empowered * The ordinance which has been just mentioned only a removal from one lordship marcher into states, that by the laws of Wales, abjuration or (as another. “The abjuracyons in Wales is no we now call the punishment) transportation, in- ferther distaunce but to the next adjoynte lord âtead of being a departure from the realm, was marchar.” . . . . . . . . - M m History of BRECKNocksHIRE. empowered at any time during the term of three years next after the dissolution of the then parliament, to suspend or repeal, revoke or abrogate this whole actor any part thereofas should stand with his most gracious pleasure, and lastly, a reservation was made in favour of the rights of Sir Walter Devereux lord Ferrars of Chartley, chief justice of South Wales, and steward and receiver of the lordship of Builth in the marches of Wales. - s In this act, the office of sheriff in the counties of Wales is frequently mentioned, but at that time and for a few years afterwards, their duty was of a very different nature from what it is at present; they were then only employed to collect the revenues of the crown, to levy fines and to accompany the justices in Eyre in their circuits: they were appointed for life by patent, and the place being considered fucrative as well as respectable, was generally bestowed on some court favourite. Though the patents or grants made by Henry as well as his father, were resumed and annulled in 1 540,” yet there were only aominal sheriffs in some counties and none in others, it until the union was finally adjusted and completed in 1543. . The statute passed in this year directs, that they shall be appointed by the crown for the same time and no longer than in En gland, and their duties are declared to be similar to those of the English sheriffs in every respect. - The act of incorporation, which I have briefly examined, and from which some few extracts have been made, was certainly attended with considerable advantages. to both nations; yet still many difficulties and inconveniences remained while the laws of the two countries differed so widely, and the theory as well as the practice varied in different parts of the principality. In some places the ordinances of the lords marchers continued, in others the Welsh laws prevailed, and in others the English were introduced. These discordant systems produced so much confusion. and disorder, that the inhabitants of Wales very wisely determined to draw up and pre- sent the petition to which I have before alluded. This eloquent and manly appeal to the justice of the English monarch is now familiar to most readers, it would there- fore savour of plagiarism to insert it here, especially as the work § of a very agreeable • - . | and * 32 H. S. c. 27. † The first annual sheriff of Glamorganshire was Sir George Herbert of Swansea, in 1542; of Bre- conshire, Sir William Vaughan of Portham!, in 1539; Radnorshire, John Baker of Presteigne, in 1544. There are many reasons to induce us to believe that the lord marcher of Brecon appointed his sheriff long prior to this act. In a deed now Gwylim, Vice-comes;’ remaining in the town coffer of the Corporation of Brecon, (if it be not preserved with too much care) dated the eighth of Henry the seventh, one of the witnesses subscribes “Jenkin ap Llewelyn ap whether he was for the borough or lordship is not so clear. For a list of the sheriffs of Breconshire see appendix No. XVI. # 34 & 35 H. 8. C. 26. § Warrington's hist. of Wales, HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. 267 and intelligent writer, to whom the Welsh are much indebted, is, or at least ought to . be, in every person’s hands who wishes to direct his attention to British history ; but there is one compliment in the petition, so well and so elegantly expressed, that I cannot refrain from noticing it. After asserting that the Welsh like the Florentines and Spaniards affected to speak gutturally, “as believing words that sound so deep proceed from the heart,” the petitioners add; “so that if we have retained this language longer than the more Northern inhabitants of this island, we hope it will be no imputation to us; your highness will but have the more tongues to serve you; it shall not hinder us to study English, when it were but to learn how we might the better obey your highness.” To this address, promoted undoubtedly, if not dictated, by Sir John Pryce of the priory of Brecon, an eminent antiquary and a great favourite at court, Henry lent a willing ear; and therefore “at the humble suit and petition of his subjects of Wales (as the statute of the 34th and 35th of his reign recites) out of his abundant goodness,” he caused several regulations to be enacted as to the mode and practice of administering the laws in Wales; the prin- cipal of which was the establishing and confirming the jurisdiction of the president and council of the marches of Wales, and also of the court of great sessions, appointed to be held in every shire twice a year before one” justice; which court was to have a concurrent authority with that of the lord president and council, and to continue six days in every shire at each of such sessions: some further regulations were also hereby ordained as to the sealing and issuing of writs, the salaries of the judges, the fees of the officers and other matters which need not be specified. ,” Soon after the passing of this act a difficulty arose about the payment of the wages of members of parliament chosen for Wales. In England the common law of the land had long established the right of knights of the shires and burgesses to fees and wages, while attending their duty in parliament. In 1543 it appears that this remuneration was fixed at four shillings a day to the former and two shillings a day to the latter; but it should seem that it was doubted whether the newly established memberst for Wales, who of course could have no such prescription in their favour, had a claim to a similar compensation; the act of the 35th of this reign, C. 2. therefore declared, that they were entitled to the same fees and wages as the representatives of the English counties and boroughs, and provided that the writ de solutione feodi Militis parliamenti should issue to the sheriffs in Wales gº to levy them whenever required. - - ~, . Though * For a list of the justices on the Brecon circuit, see appendix No. XVII. By 18 Eliz. c.8, at the pe- tition of the inhabitants, another judge was appointed for each circuit in Wales. ºf For a list of members of parliament for the county and borough of Brecon, see appendix No. XVIII. --- - M m 2 : - 968 8- - HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. Though the regal dignity of the lords marchers had ceased and their power had been considerably curtailed and restrained by the laws of Henry the eighth, their name and jurisdiction continued for some years after his time, for in the first and second of Phillip and Mary we find “an act to confirm the liberties of the lords marchers of Wales / which recites the twenty seventh of the late king, and proceeds to ratify the provisions there made in their behalf, and ascertains what forfeitures and benefits the lords marchers, spiritual and temporal, should have of their tenants; together with the mises, profits, liberties and franchises appendant to their respec- tive lordships. - - - The statute of the twenty first of James the first, c. 10, is peculiarly gratifying to the feelings of a Welshman; it begins with the following recital; “whereas the subjects of the country and dominion of Wales have been constantly loyal and obedient, and have lived in all dutiful subjection to the crown of England,” it then proceeds to recite the unprecedented clause in the thirty fourth of Henry - the eighth, by which he was empowered to change, alter, order, punish and reform the law then passed at his pleasure, and that all such alterations, as well as any new laws which the king should make and publish in writing under his hand should “be of as good strength, virtue and effect” as if made by authority of parliament // / The statute of James then goes on to declare that it is manifest by long experience that the laws already ordained for the said country are, for the most part, agreeable to the laws of England, and are obeyed with great alacrity; for which reasons this most detestable clause is with great propriety repealed. The president and council of the marches of Wales retained their power until the --- epoch of the glorious revolution, when being deemed oppressive” to the subject and unnecessary to the due administration of justice, this court was finally dissolved and the appointment of the sheriffs in Wales referred to the recommendation of the justices of the great sessions, and by a subsequent actit of the same reign, a certain clause in the statute of the 34th and 35th of Henry the eighth, limiting the justices .." s - - of . * Lewis, (one of the Harpton family, who wrote the antient history of Britain) asserts that this court was useful in its design and impartial in its practice; he says the fees were small and the delays less than in most other courts; but in con- tradiction to this assertion, it must be admitted, that the tradition of the country is with the legis- *ature of William and Mary, for it has most assuredly left behind it “a wounded name” through- out the principality. The reader who wishes to know more of this court will receive much infor- mation upon the subject, by perusing the instruc. tions given by James the first to lord Compton, president in 1625, and ten years afterwards by Charles the first to the earl of Bridgewater, which are preserved in Rymer's Faedera, vol., 17, p. 629, and vol. 19. p. 448, t 5 & 6 W.& M. c. 4, HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE, 269 of the peace in Wales to eight in each county, is repealed, and the king empowered to augment their number as he might think convenient. The statute of the seventh and eighth of this reign, chapter 38, enables the inhabitants of Wales to dispose of their property and personal effects by will, thereby abolishing a certain antient custom in the principality, whereby widows and younger children of persons dying there, were entitled to a certain portion of the goods and chattels of their late husbands or fathers, called, her or their reasonable part, notwithstanding any previous disposal thereof by will or deed and notwithstand- ing a competent jointure had been made by settlement. By this act, the widows, children and other relations of a testator, are wholly barred from any claim on his personal estate otherwise than is limited by will. Several other statutes have also been passed relative to Wales from the time of Henry the eighth to the present day, but they are of little consequence in an historical view; besides, this chapter has been already extended to such a length that I fear the man of law before he has waded through one half will have discovered fifty errors in it, and the unlearned reader be found fast asleep. [ aro J. C H A P T E R X. Language, Manners, Popular Opinions and Prejudices, Customs, State of Commerce, useful Projects, as Turnpike Roads, and the Brecon and Abergavenny Canal. THE language of the inhabitants of Brecknockshire holding small farms, as well as of the lower rank of people, is principally the British or Welsh, except upon the borders of the Wye in the hundred of Talgarth, where the vile English jargon, some time back introduced into Radnorshire, has crept into use, of late years in- deed, the English language has become more general throughout the county than it was during the former and greater part of the last century; it is pronounced in tones and accents difficult to be described, though easily perceived by the ear, yet in general it is free from grammatical inaccuracies, there are however a few peculiari- ties arising from prejudices or the difference of idiom between their own vernacular tongue and that of their fellow subjects of England, which like the Sibboleth of the Ephraimites, instantly discover the Briton. One of the oldest, and of course most inveterate objections of the Welsh to the £nglish language is the frequent recurrence of the letter S ; - “Sisial iaith y Saeson.” The hissing Saxon sound, (or tongue) is proverbial in the principality, and under this impression when the inhabitants attempt to speak in the language of their neighbours, in order to give it its characteristic accent (as they think) they sprinkle it soundly and plentifully with that crooked letter, pressed down and squeezed hard, for they have no idea of its sound, as in “has, was, &c.” “Wass I come 2 wass you go? wass you tell me?” are the common phrases and interro- gatories continually heard among our countrymen, and yet this trait, so frequently discovered in common &onversation here, is never noticed on the English stage, where the comedians and the audience amuse themselves with the frequent repe. - - tition HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. g7 | tition of “hur” and “look you,” which I can assert with confidence the traveller will not hear from Monmouth to St. David's, unless it be from the mouth of some of the lower rank of Englishmen from the borders or from those who have been infected with their jargon. • . . • Another blunder frequently escapes the lips of the British, would-be-Saxon, the Welsh language has no neuter;” consequently those who are accustomed generally to converse in it, are frequently at a loss to express themselves when they describe inanimate substances, and they have an Hibernian facility in confounding the sexes. In Welsh most things are female,t they therefore may be excused if they too fre- quently use that gender, but unfortunately they are too apt to misapply it when they talk of a man; “she wass tell me so, she wass bid me go,” are frequently meant to explain the orders of a master, and they are unlucky almost to perverseness in the sound of the letters a and o, whenever the first is pronounced broad in English, as in “ball,” the Welshman closes his lips and minces it into “beal,” on the other hand, when it is softened and lengthened by the final e, as in “pate, fate, hate,” he opens his mouth as wide as he can and makes it pat, fat, hat, &c. in the same manner when the o is used, as in hop, the Welshman hopes along, but convert him into a post and he becomes a paust; with an uniformity and perseverance which would do them credit in a better cause, they never miss these blunders, and it is in vain that the Englishman attempts to reform or correct them; they have heard their fathers and mothers so pronounce the words and therefore—they must be right. The Welsh have also another apparent anomaly, as the Englishman would call it, (by whom it would hardly be tolerated) but I hardly know how to reprobate the defect (if such it be) as it reminds me of that freedom of spirit by which this country was long distinguished; they have never thought it necessary to introduce into their language the word “shall:” when they therefore would ask “shall I go to London? they say, a ai i Lundain? will I go to London?” when they mean to express greater anxiety or stronger solicitation, the phrase is, “aga i ſyn’d i Lundain * literally, “ have I go to London " the word permission being implied but not expressed. f : \ . * - These *This must be admitted to be a defect as long as the female, and we may be favoured by some we continue to make use of the phrase “inanimate future poet with “the loves of the rocks,” or “an nature;” perhaps before the expiration of the pre- epithalamium upon the auspicious union of two sent century, the neuter may be sent to Coventry; drops ºf water.” - - for as the sexual system of plants has been irrefrag- + I must except the hours which are unaccount- ably established, their air, habits and manners des– ably male in the British language, as are great cribed and even their amours detected ; it is not too waters, high hills and some vales, while all rivers. Koń much to suppose that before the year 1900 we shall are female. be able to discover the male particle of Sand from. 272 HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE, These and a few more of the same kind are the awkward inhabitants of the farm and the cottage, but there are two or three phrases which perpetually haunt the mansions even of the affluent, and which I think are oftener heard in this county than in any other part of the principality, these are “yes indeed” and “ay sure.” These grotesque expletives (for they are frequently little more) are in the mouths even of persons of education, who have lived long in the country; they are certainly ludi- crous, but it must be admitted that habits are inveterate and the corruptions of lan- guage contagious: with the candid and the liberal, a slight apology for their rusticity will suffice, especially when it is considered that provinces and counties have their different dialects, law, physic and commerce, their jargons and even the senate (I am free to say) is not without its peculiar phraseology. - - These are the corruptions of the English language when spoken by a Welshman, but there is evidently a difference of dialect between the Welsh heard in Breconshire and that which is used in Monmouthshire; it is first observable on the East of Crickhowel, where the Gwentian's phrase is, “rhw galed, rhw dola, &c.” instead of rhy galed, rhydda, as the men of Dyfed write and pronounce it: the inhabitants of Glamorganshire again differ very widely not only in their expressions but in the tone of voice from their Northern neighbours. The greeting of the Silurian (which like that of other countries has nineteen times out of twenty no meaning whatever) is peculiarly alarming to a hypochondriac, if he be not an inhabitant of that province and accustomed to the salutation, “ydyw chwi-'n iach?” are you well, is pronounced in a tone so apparently full of doubt, and the accent is so strongly laid upon the last word in the sentence, that a stranger would be induced to think his countenance indicated approaching sickness and a valetudinarian might conceive himself in the last stage of a consumption; they likewise differ from Breconshire in pronouncing Dymau, Tamed, Llymed, which we pronounce like Dimme, Tammed, Llummed, in English, while they say Dymma, Tammaid, Llymmaid, &c. Lewis Morris, in a letter to Edward Richards, in thesecond volume of the Cambrian Register, fastidi- ously criticises upon the Demetian Welsh termination of these words: with all due deference to his undoubted abilities and learning, his objections do him no credit, and his observations might as well have been spared; though Richards, who is half pleased and half vexed with him, defends himself by quoting some defective lines of other authors to justify u ndoubted errors in his own. . . . in general, the inhabitants of Breconshire, as well as the whole people of Wales, retain an enthusiastic veneration for their ancient language; we have this strongly exemplified in a tale of former times, and as it pourtrays the characteristic features d - * Ǻ * HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. 273 \, \ of the Britons of the present day, I shall introduce it. The story is told by Giraldus Cambrensis. Henry the second, when engaged in planning an expedi- tion against South Wales, at a place called Pencadair in that country, consulted an antient Welshman as to the strength and number of forces in that part of the principality and the probability of his success against them; the old man thus pithily replied; “this nation, Oh King! may suffer much and be in a great measure ruined, or at least weakened, by your present and future attempts, as formerly it has often been, but we assure ourselves it will never wholly be destroyed by the anger or power of any mortal man 3. unless the wrath of heaven concur in that destruction; - nor (whatever changes happen as to any other part of the world) can I believe that any other language besides the Welsh shall answer at the last day for the greater part of this corner of the globe.” To the same effect prophesied Taliesin, “I nér a folant, “Still shall they chaunt their great creator’s praise, Eu iaith a gadwant, And still preserve their language and their lays, Eu tir a gollant, But nought preserve of all their wide domains, Onºd gwyllt Wallia.” Save Wallia's wild uncultivated plains.” - Taliesin. Walters. To this patriotic partiality for their language and natale solum we may venture to attribute all that nationality of character, which surviving the ravages of time still continues undiminished in the Cambro-British breast. It was the observa- tion of a late respectable historian, “that nations which have been long seated in the same country and have had little intercourse with strangers commonly re- . tain the same national character, manners and customs through a long succession of ages; they become proud of their antiquity-fond admirers of their ancestors and fondly attached to their sentiments and prejudices, their follies, errors and vices not excepted.” This is very remarkably the characteristic of the native yeomanry of Wales; as to those of superior rank or the constant inhabitants of towns, they are now by habit or education become so wholly English that no dis- tinction is observable between them and their fellow subjects Eastward of the Severn; but the sequestered peasant who rarely quits the vicinity of his mountain, who speaks no other language than his mother tongue, still adheres with infinite attachment to all the habitudes and customs of his ancestors; on all occasions he adopts their sentiments and dwells with fond delight upon the traditions of old times, Arthur, Llewelyn and Glyndyfwrdwy’s lord will ever be the themes of Cambro-British admiration, whilst Offa, Edward and Henry will never cease to - create disgust—Uneducated in the refinements of that new philosophy - . . which N n . 274 HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE, which ostentatiously affects an universal citizenship, the Welshman thinks me. country equal to his own, and even in the midst of poverty is happy to acknow. ledge as his proudest boast that he was born an antient Briton. - - “Whilst every good his native wilds impart Imprints the patriot passion on his heart,. And e'en the hills which round his mansion rise Enhance the bliss his scanty fund supplies. Dear is that shed to which his soul conforms, And dear that hill which lifts him to the storms, And as a babe when scaring sounds molest Clings close and closer to his mother's breast, So the loud torrent and the whirlwind's roar But bind him to his native mountains more.” Goldsmith. it is but justice to observe that the character given of this people by certain, learned and unlearned writers is very little to be depended upon; biassed by: interest, warped by prejudices or judging without a sufficient knowledge of their subject, they have been more studious to paint them in unfavourable colours. than diligent to inquire as to real facts. William the monk of Newbury for in- stance asserts,” that “Wales produces a race of men barbarous in manners and, faithless in principle, greedy of other men's blood and prodigal of their own, vehemently intent on rapine and bearing an innate hatred to the English nation.” These are doubtless heavy charges, but the bitterness of spirit which suggested them is easily accounted for when we learn from. Dr. Powel that this. William (whom the Welsh call Gwilym bach or little Wil) applied. for the bishoprick of St. Asaph upon the death of Geoffrey Arthur (surnamed of Monmouth) about the year 1165, but being disappointed and having met with a little rough. treatment from David the son of Owen Gwynedd, he became violently enraged. and “vomited forth * (says Powel), his spleen against the whole British nation, as the unprejudiced reader may soon discover from the virulence and aerimony of his writings. - - Another writer + from whose eonnections and descent we might have expected. better treatment, and a more honourable report, to please a monarch whom at the same time he affected to despise, insults his countrymen with charges as gross and as illiberal as they are unfounded; he talks of crimes “which God and men. abhor,” and ransacks the black catalogue of vices for the foul reproaches with which he brands them; but we have seen the man—with all his learning, he * Gul. Newb. l. 2, p. 100. f Girald Camb, deillaud, Walliae, c. 6 and 7. { * *IISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE, - g75 * zoo had great and prominent faults, had he taken the trouble of examining the triads or perusing the laws of Hywel Dda, he would have found ample reasons for retracting some of his assertions; he would have seen that, with all their pecu- liarities, in no country were the laws of morality in general more strongly incul- cated, more strictly guarded or the breach of them more severely punished than in Wales. . Pinkerton—I do not weep, although I lament that I am compelled to ob- serve it, the respectable and learned, yet eccentric Pinkerton, has sacrificed can- dour to unmanly prejudice and a blind attachment to a system of his own creation. It is singular that notwithstanding his confession, that" were he writing on the history of Ireland and Wales in a total ignorance of the Irish and Welsh languages, there would be room for as much laughter and utter derision as if one should attempt & to paint without colours or build without materials, notwithstanding his subsequent acknowledgment that he was ignorant of the Celtic tongue, yet this gentleman as- sumes a dictatorial authority over the very constitution of those languages and an un- limited licence of abuse over those natives who profess to speak them.—After a variety of previous invectives he adds;* “But the Celtic, i will venture to say, is of all savage languages the most confused, as the Celts are of all savages the most deficient in understanding.” The first is a very bold advance in a man who is self. convicted of ignorance of his subject, and the second an illiberal ipse dixit, de- serving only of contempt. The truth is, that this writer, zealous to support his new and idolized system, conceives he can only serve his purpose, by treating those with ribaldry and scurrility, whom a low jealousy has pointed out as rivals. This mode of treating a literary subject reminds one of Dr. King's observations on the Burtonic style of satire. “To # be as copious as the giant or his 'squire, (says the doctor) and to attain their elocution, you must converse for at least six months to- gether with tinkers and coblers, and bargemen and carmen, and herb-women and oyster-women, and cinder-women, &c. you may likewise pick up a deal of good stuff and fit for present use from rag fair and from the several bear gardens and nine pin alleys in the neighbourhood of London: as soon as you have filled your ma- gazine and erected your battery, you must discharge your whole stock with great velocity and without intermission, against the unfortunate man or woman whom you have pitched upon to be the object of your satire, but least any nice or squea- . - - . - . mish - * Inquiry into the history of Scotland. \ it Elogium Jaéci Etonensis sive Gigantis octavo Oxon 1750, p.79. - N a 2 * 276 HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE, mish reader should turn aside his head, or stop his nose, you must contrast your first collection with another of quite a different colour and complexion : you must select from dedicatory epistles and funeral orations, inscriptions and epitaphs, all the laudable qualities which have been ascribed, either to the living or the dead, and confer the same on your own precious person, without afloting the smallest portion toyour best friend or nearest relation; whom to shew the world how much they are your inferiors, you must always treat with some little marks of contempt.” TMr. Pinkerton See [[{S. diligently to have studied and fully practised these humourous. instructions of the worthy doctor. He has set up his golden image of truly Gothic fabrication, he has decked it with all the glories of the East and West, plundered the treasures of the North, and with his brazen trumpet he summons all the literary world to fall down and worship it; threatening the incredulous sceptic with the fiery furnace of his wrath if he does not instantly attend to the call; for in plainest English he has told us, that “good manners are not to be shewn to all” that is, to such as venture to differ from him in opinion, and in truth he has kept \his word, for not satisfied with having bedaubed his Goths with praise, ascribing to them every excellence of which human nature is capable, making them more wise, more just, more every thing, than the other inhabitants of the earth, and even ex- alting them to demi-Gods, he thinks if all insufficient without crumbling into noth- ing, the name and reputation of every other nation and people.—The Goths and Celts were amongst the earliest inhabitants of antient Europe; they were cotem- poraries and rivals: this with Mr. Pinkerton has been a sufficient reason for de- crying the character of the latter, degrading them into animals of an inferior creation, and bespattering with unmerited abuse the respectable writers who haye. treated of their history and thought well of their manners or their language.—The following is his mode of contrasting characters.” “T he Goths, a wise, valiant and generous race, were the friends of every elegant art and useful science, and when not constrained to arms by the inevitable situation and spirit of their society, they carried every art and science to heights unknown before, as the antient Greeks and modern Europeans might witness. In wisdom (that perfection of human na- ture) antient authors call the rude Goths, the first of nations.” . And here he is willing to admit the authority of Dio Cassius; though upon another occasion he looks upon him as a writer of most suspicious character, another Ephorus,” and confesses “ the is justly regarded as an ignorant fabulist,” now, per contra, “The Celts from all antient accounts, and from present knowledge, were, and are a Savage race, incapable of labour or even of rude arts; being indeed mere savages, * Enquily, vol. 1, p. 268. t Enquiry, vol. 1, p. 407. -- HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE, 277 wind worse than the savages of America, remarkable even to our own times, for a total neglect of agriculture themselves, and for plundering their neighbours. The Irish Celts, Scotch Celts and the Welsh Celts, have all alike a claim to the character, and when it begins to pass away it is a sign that by intermarriage the Gothic blood begins to exceed the Celtic, and that the Celts are no longer Celts, though so ac- counted.” “The Celts are savages, have been savages since the world began and will be for ever savages; mere radical savages, not yet advanced even to a state of barba- rism, and if any foreigner doubts this, he has only to step into the Celtic parts of Wales, Ireland or Scotland and look at them : for they are just as they were, inca- pable of industry or civilization, even after half their blood is Gothic.” f He assumes that “even their language is derived from the English, and to say that a writer is a Celt is to say that he is a stranger to truth, modesty and morality,” and to complete the whole and crown this climax of abuse, he says, “ twhat a f lion is to an ass, a Goth is to a Celt.” - But now the old fable inverted is seen, For the lion insults and the jackasses grim. f To abuse, indiscriminately thrown upon a whole nation, I will take the liberty of opposing an instance of individual virtue, it is a weak defence, and can only be justified in resisting an attack equally impotent. - In the Erotica of Parthenius Ş we have the following proof of true greatness of mind in a Celtic savage –“ When the Gauls made an irruption into Ionia, and despoiled all the cities thereof, it happened that the sacred feast of Ceres was ce- rebrated at Miletum, and the women of the place were assembled together in a temple at a short distance from the city. At that time a part of the barbarian army, separated from the rest, entered the Miletian territory, and making an un- expected attack took the women prisoners, in expectation that the Miletians would ransom them at a high price. Some of the barbarians took away with them such . * * • *-. - women * Dissert, p. 68. f Ibid. p. 195. f Ibid. p. 69, in a note. $ Parthenius of Nice was a poet who lived in the beginning of Augustus's reign; he wrote a discourse entitled, Egorizov from whence the above anecdote is taken; he dedicated it to Cornelius Gallus governor of Egypt. He wrote also the praises of Aretas his wife, and several other pieces. It is said he was made a slave in the time of the Mithri- datic war, that Cinna emancipated him, and {f we be-. that he died in the time of Tiberius. . \ / IIc.3%pºrov, lieve what Suidas says of him, he must have been very young when he was made prisoner; for there were seventy years between this war and the time of Tiberius—be this as it may—Virgil was his scholar and as it is said imitated him. In the proemium to the above story it is asserted that Aristodemus of Nysa in the first of his histories has preserved it; except that the names differ, he calls Erippe Gythimia, and the barbarian Cav- 2.T3. Ił , ... ' 278 - HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. women as were skilled in domestic economy; of which number was Erippe the wife of Xanthus, a man of high authority, and of the first family in Miletum, who had left at home a son only two years old. Xanthus, doatingly fond of his wife, and dying to recover her, converted a considerable part of his property into 'money, and taking a thousand pieces of gold with him, he passed into Italy, from thence by the assistance of guides to Massilia, and from thence he reached the country of the Celts; at length he approached the house where his wife resided with a man, evidently of the first consequence among the Celts, and requested he might be admitted to lodge with them there. Upon the master of the house's acquiescing (for such is the hospitality of the people) he entered the house and beheld his wife, when she immediately threw her arms round his neck, embraced him and received him kindly. Soon after, Erippe told the Celt, that the stranger was her husband, and that he came upon her account, and brought with him the price of her ransom. The Celt applauding the disposition of Xanthus, called his friends together, and treated him hospitably, and having prepared a ban- quet, placed his wife next to him: he then demanded by an interpreter at how much he valued the whole of his property; Xanthus replied, he valued it at a thousand pieces of gold : the barbarian on this ordered him to divide that sum into four parts, so that he might take three parts for himself, his wife and son, and leave the fourth for the ransom of his wife, who after they had retired to their chamber severely chid Xanthus, supposing he had not as much gold as he had promised to the barbarian, fearing he would get himself into danger from his ina- bility to perform his undertaking; Xanthus assured her, that besides this, he had yet another thousand pieces of gold concealed in the shoes of his servant, for he had not the least conception he should have found a barbarian so just, or that he would not have demanded an infinitely higher ransom. Upon the morrow, the wife most perfidiously betrayed this secret to the Celt, and insisted that he ought to -suffer death for such a deceit ; at the same time assuring him she loved him more than she did her country or her child, but that she utterly abhorred Xanthus. The Celt was so shoeked at her relation, that he was almost prepared instantly to put her to death. Afterwards, when Xanthus was ready to depart, he took an affectionate leave of him and sent him forward, following himself with Erippe ; they were now arrived at the mountains of the Celtic country, where the barbarian said he would offer up a sacrifice before they parted, the victim then being set out he ordered Erippe to lay hold of it, but no sooner had she seized it, as she had been accustomed to do, than with a drawn sword he stabbed her to the heart, and severed her head from her body, and in order to assuage the grief of Xanthus upon this me- lancholy HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE, 27% lancholy event, he revealed to him the treachery his wife had meditated against him, and suffered him to depart with all his gold.” - I leave the reader to make his comments on this story; fully satisfied the result (as far as it goes) will prove honourable to the Celtic character, for though it should be false, which I see no reason to assume, it will be recollected that even fables were always intended as illustrations of real life, and that this was written in an age when both Goths and Celts were stigmatized with the appellation of barbarians by their more polite neighbours, the Romans. - - . Such then were the sentiments and mode of thinking of some of our early ances. tors; with respect to the manners, habits and dispositions of the inhabitants of this county and the vicinity; at the present day, it is much easier to say what they are not, than to describe them with accuracy and precision as they really are. In the first place, they are not the savages painted by Mr. Pinkerton, and I conjure the . dispassionate and unprejudiced philosopher (and to such only I appeal) to make the experiment that gentleman suggests; if any one of his friends is inclined to give him implicit credit, and apprehends the loss of life or limb on his entering the country of the Welsh Celts, I beg leave to offer myself as his hostage, to surrender myself even into the lion's den in Gothland, and to be responsible for his safe return without injury to his person or feelings, unless he deserves it by his crimes, QT. provokes it by outrageous misconduct: but if the talons of this king of beasts be terrific, the bites and continual buzzing of the musquito genus called tourists, which has of late infested the principality, are infinitely more troublesome. This tribe are epidemically in the habit of asserting facts without foundation * and inferring without data, and while the public can swallow their marvels and relish their caricatures, the evil will continue and the insects will Swarm among us, - - and * In the Gentleman's Magazine for March last, one of these gentry, a man of eminence and know- rédge in his profession but who will not be per- guaded that he does not excel in the sublime, - though he has no taste for that style, further than dealing in the marvellous, tells us, he was disturbed at Crickhowel by a number of people who were amusing themselves, as his hostess informed him, with hearing the trial of a woman accused of SORCERY. “The gentry and clergy (says he) of the county are all met together, determined to have a compieie Äout of it in the assembly room bel w (which by the bye is above stairs) a triałin the morning, a feast in the afternoon, and a ball. in the evening!!”—inine hostess-good woman knows no more about the meaning of the word sorcery than she does of the crime.”—To say that there could be no such trial here, is almost super- fluous, but the fact is, that there was no such ac- cusation. There happened to be a monthly meet- ing of the magistrates of the hundred in the house when this traveller and his nephew came there, when a woman was brought before them, not for witch- craft, but for imposing upon the peasantry of the Country and obtaining money under pretence of fortune telling, and in the evening of the same day the gentlemen and ladies of the vicinity had appointed an assembly, where for ought I know some of these very justices may have joined in the dance after business was over, ... sº 25() * HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. and continue to display and to describe their ephemeral flights.” I have no hesi- tation in asserting, because I have truth for my support, that the character of the Welsh, drawn by most of the late travellers in that country, has so little, if any, resemblance to the original, that it might as well be said to be a description of a Breton, as a Briton, of Walachia, as of Wales. To pourtray the peculiarities of dis- position and manners of a country, to discover thoroughly those sentiments which for different reasons they wish to conceal, and to develope and display with cor- rectness their turn of thinking, their passions and their prejudices, requires a greater degree of knowledge, and a longer residence among them than these flying philo- sophers chuse to bestow upon these subjects, and above all, and as a preliminary to a more intimate acquaintance with the poor Celtic savages, it is absolutely necessary that the polite Goth or Saxon should understand the British language, and yet this is a talent few of them possess, though almost all of them endea. vour to explain Welsh words as they pick them up on the highways, and some of them even to criticise upon them with great flippancy; in consequence of this defect and the hurry of the tour, they continually mislead, and are misled, and are too apt to describe any incidents or occurrences which may appear extraordinary to them as characteristic of the country.f . . - - The Welsh are (I fear) proud, irascible, abrupt in address, hasty in their delive- ry, and sometimes in their conclusions, they are shrewd in argument, persevering and indefatigable in pursuit of a favourite point, cautious and artful in their endea- yours to conceal their object from the party from whom it is sought, and too fond of obtaining it by fraud or artifice: indeed the difference betwixt wisdom and cun- ning does not seem to be thoroughly understood by all the inhabitants of this country.—A victory in a court of law (and they have rather a litigious spirit) is thought more valuable, and the lawyer better esteemed by a certain description of people, when it is obtained by manoeuvre or chicanery, than when it follows the weight of evidence or the fair merits of the case. For the English, they have long entertained * Candour as well as justice to these writers, many of whom are respectable for their talents, as well as conduct in private Fife, must induce us to attribute the defects alluded to, to inattention, want of authentic information, or erroneous judg- ment, rather than to a wilful intention to deceive the public. The vagaries as well as the appear- ance of this order may be thus described. “The insect youth are on the wing Fager to taste the honied spring And glide along the plains at noon, Some lightly o'er the mountains skim, Some shew their gaily gilded trim Quick glancing to the Sun.” t Thus one of these gentlemen, having seen a shcemaker also sells books, after remarking upon the oddity of this combination of trades, hints that it is common in the principality; the fact is that this union of avocations is looked upon with equal surprise in Wales as it is in England, and is as seldom to be met with in the former country. HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. esſ entertained an habitual, and almost inveterate aversion, and though it is now wearing off very fast, it is but too evident in their dealings and in their manner of speaking of them, - - - - “Saisyw ef syn.” - “He is a Saxon, beware,” is still frequently heard, when one of the natives of Wales perceives his countryman in treaty with an Englishman, and it is said that formerly the articles of consumption esteemed as the greatest luxuries in the prin- cipality were, “caws wedi bobi, a Sais wedigrogi,” or, “toasted cheese and hung' *Saxon.” - - . The Romans have long been forgotten, and to the Normans they seem to have retained no enmity; indeed they may almost be said to love them, for the same reasons that grandfathers are supposed to prefer their grandchildren to their imme- diate issue; because in them they see the enemies of their enemy. The treachery of the Saxons, whom the aboriginal Britons introduced into the island as friends and allies, and their cruelty in exterminating in cold blood the nobility of the anti- ent inhabitants (as is said to have been done on Salisbury plain) still rankles in the bosoms of the indigenous sons of freedom; the connexions and intercourse how- ever of the two countries are now so numerous and so intimate, and the interests of both are so much blended, that in a short time the distinction of country will be thought of no more, and even at this moment it is confined to the secluded na- tive of our wildest mountains, or to some unsociable beings, who unacquainted with the improved state of society, are prejudiced by tradition and are misanthropes & from habit or constitution. - T hey are said to possess much curiosity, and an irresistible desire of prying into the designs, and learning the destination of travellers; there is nothing singular in this: all countries have this apparent curiosity, when they see or hear a being of a different garb or language from their own, and if a Welshman just caught and brought from the mountains, were introduced into a levee at St. James, or into a rout among the fashionables of the metropolis, his country and his manners would be as much the objects of inquiry and curiosity, as those of the English phi- losophers in the bogs of Wales. The peasants of this country have no idea that there are persons in England who are at a loss how to spend their money or their. time, nor can they be persuaded to believe that the object of these tourists is to admire the beauties of the mountains, vales and cataracts so familiar, and of course : - • * . - - - - *- . so * Here is an opportunity for a triumph against the Celts, as Mr. Pinkerton may argue from thence that the Welsh were not only savages but cannibals. . - g O o N. - *~ \ 2s2 HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE, , so uninteresting to those who have always resided near them, consequently they conclude that the stranger is either an agent to government or the landiord, he is either an exciseman in search of smuggled goods, or a surveyor come to raise the price of their lands, or else he must be in search of gold, that grand desideratum of all ages and countries: for like the Arabs and other unpolished nations, they imagine gold to be concealed under every carn and cromlech, and many a valuable relic of antiquity has fallen a sacrifice to the auri sacra fames, in their eagerness to discover the adored metal. . . . . One of the worst of their habits remains to be described and to be deplored; this is their savage mode of fighting—In England when a battle ensues the lowest of the mob has something like notions of honour, and roars out with sincerity, “fair play,” but with us all advantages are fair in war, and a fallen adversary is at the mercy of his more fortunate competitor, while the by-standers seldom, if ever, in- terfere to prevent this unmanly application of the feet, and this ferºcious mode of injuring, and sometimes of murdering a fellow creature. Death has frequently ensued in consequence of this cruel habit: it is rather extraordinary that it has not oftener followed these affrays; but the Welsh are not to be argued out of the practice, their countrymen, in general do not reprobate it, but rather admire the victor, however he may have acquired his triumph, - . - It is difficult to say how far that want of cleanliness, with which the Welsh have been frequently charged, is really imputable to them. I am not their panegyrist or their advocate; after a more minute attention and more laborious investigation of the subject than has been employed by most of those who have thrown out the aspersion, I can form no decided opinion of their comparative merit or demerit in this respect—Glamorganshire most certainly, must be instantly acquitted of this offence (for such it is) the cots in the vales of that county are externally and in- ternally neater than in any other part of the kingdom, or at least I may venture to assert they are not excelled in that particular in any tract of equal extent in England: the hut indeed upon the wilds of Breconshire where the door serves for the threefold purposes of an entrance, a window and a chimney is a miserable ha- bitation, and I have seen most disgusting scenes of filth in narrow allies in our towns; but there are also streets in London, of whose state I am persuaded not even the magistrates have the least knowledge or information—f forbear to des- cribe them—the recollection of a visit to one of them at the request of a country-- man, with whom I conversed on this subject, is so disgusting that I cannot think of it without nausea. One of the proofs of want of cleanliness in the Welsh (which has been strongly relied. upon) is their being observed frequently without: *. - - - - - shoes. i - …” HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. 28s shoes or stockings—the objection is not new, it is as old at least as Henry the fourth, I am not afraid (says the gallant monarch, secure in his numbers and pro- tected on his throne) “I am not afraid,” says he, “of those barefooted rascals,”— meaning, I presume that all those who were barefooted must have been rascals or vagabonds. Under favour, “my very noble and approved good masters,” the dirt thus thrown will not stick; this custom, however odious it may appear to those who live in courts and are strangers to “the short and simple annals of the poor,” - is productive of the reverse of what they too hastily presume; it originates in hard necessity and commendable parsimony; the rustic Welsh damsel who trudges to . a fair or market barefooted, has no more pleasure in this kind of exercise than the courtier, though from habit the inconvenience diminishes. As soon as she ap- proaches her journey’s end the first stream near the town to which she directs her course is employed to wash off the dirt acquired in her walk; the shoes and stock- - ings are then put on and worn til her return, are again taken off and the feet again washed before she proceeds to her house or her bed. Is there any want of cleanliness discoverable here? I do not assert it, but I fear there may be some £ine ladies who wear silk stockings and yet have fouler feet than this nudiped. The English travellers have described the Welsh farmers and peasants as hos- pitable, a virtue they certainly possess, but we owe this acknowledgement In Ore to the politeness than the experience of our neighbours. For the reasons I have al- ready explained, as well as from a want of frequent intercourse with foreigners, the inhabitants of the principality have a shyness towards travellers, and a suspi- cion of the motives for their peregrinations generally prevails; but if the stranger is fortunate enough to meet with, or to be introduced to an intelligent and con- versible person upon his entre into the country, who will recommend him in his rout, his business is done and this shyness instantly vanishes, when they are as- sured by one of their neighbours on whom they can depend, that the history of their country, a desire to explore the beauties of nature, and an abstract know- ledge of their manners are alone sought for. Under these circumstances the door is thrown widely open to the welcome guest and such fare as their houses afford is placed without grudging before him: this fare indeed is in general very indif- ferent and often scanty. Most of the middling farmers kill one beast in Novem- ber or December, and a pig about Christmas which are salted and roofed; this is the principal stock and capital for the ensuing year; a piece of this, out of the pot, forms one day's dinner, the broth in which it is boiled, with a desert of bread and seheese washed down by water or whey, follows for the two or three succeeding *. . . . - days Q o 2. •s, HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE, ing days and flummery and milk and vegetables,” as potatoes, turnips, &c. with. the usual assistance of the brown loaf and skim cheese fill up the week: but- cher's meat fresh, is rarely seen in small houses, and consequently when introduced is considered as a luxury. S To the immortal honour of the commonalty of this conntry let it be recorded that “they have a tear for pity and hearts open as day for melting charity.” To the tale of woe they never turn a deaf ear, nor is the humble door of the little farmer on the mountain ever shut against an object in distress. Many a bowl of oatmeal is given away in this manner by those who absolutely want it for their own families, who live more scantily than the poor they support and are more wretchedly clad, the whole of their common articles of wearing apparel would not tempt even the avarice of the collectors for rag fair, if offered gratuitously to them; their sunday dress (it is true) is rather more valuable, but here too warmth, and not shew is consulted; the men generally wear grey or drab-coloured cloth, ma- nufactured out of the wool of their own country sheep, coarsèly and thickly woven; the dress of the women consists of a brown or blue jacket, check hand- kerchief and apron, man's hat and flannel petticoat. The coffee-house of the males during the day is the blacksmith's shop, and the grist mill of the females. At night while the women card wool, spin, or knit, those who have memory to pre- serve the tales of tradition and can relate the exploits of their ancestors, entertain the household with a recital of them or frighten their audience with the eccen- tricities of a ghost who is generally sent in search of old iron to be thrown into a pond or a river, and the phantom is thereupon appeased and departs to rest. We have been frequently told that the Welsh are remarkably superstitious, and that most, if not all of them, believe in the reality of apparitions, this is idle asser- tion and mere conjecture; they have no more superstition or credulity than falls to the lot of the humble inhabitants of an equal tract of land in any other part of the kingdom; they have, it is certain, their stock stories, their provincial demons and * goblins and their characteristic phaenomena, with whom many are acquainted, most wish to hear of, and some few believe: among the visionary beings, of whom tradition tells, and whom imagination creates, we frequently hear of the fairies, i. ! whom others from the dwarfs. The hornies or fairies * They have an universal and unconquerable sprung from a good origin, are good themselves aversion to mushrooms and look upon the gentry (as they call them) who are fond of this excellent vegetable, as somewhat worse than swine in this particular. +Fairies or destinies are of different origin, some proceed from the Gods, some from the genii and and dispense good destinies; but those men to whom misfortunes happen, ought to ascribe them to evil hormies or fairies. The dwarfs from whom the evil fairies are supposed to have sprung are described in the Edda “as a species of beings bred ## ſ HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. 286 whom they call, bendith eu mammau and y tylwyth tég, i.e. the blessings of their mothers, the fairies or fair household, meaning that they were fair of form, - though most foul in mind. The stories related of these fairies as well as of witches, who were supposed to play tricks with the milk-maid and spoil the butter, are similar to those heard in England. Fairies are undoubtedly of Gothic origin, as appears from Icelandic Sagas and the Edda or Runic mythology, they were divided into good and bad, and regarded by the Northern tribes as having the absolute disposal of the fortunes of the human race; from the Goths the supersti- tion spread, with their arms, among the nations whom they subdued and enslaved. The same idea prevailed on the continent of Asia, and particularly in the East. Mr. Mallet observes, that “the notion is not every where exploded, that there are in the bowels of the earth fairies or a kind of dwarfish and tiny beings of human shape, remarkable for their riches, their activity and their malevolence.” In many countries in the North, the people are still firmly persuaded of their existence. In Iceland at this day the good folks shew the véry rocks and hills in which they maintain that there are swarms of these small subterraneous men of the most tiny size, but of the most delicate figures. \, * Our Welsh fairies are certainly of the same family,–hatched in the same hot- bed of imagination, Let us compare the legends of Edmund Jones * with the above description of Mr. Mallet. The latter tells us, they are little, active and malevolent, and that they reside in rocks and mountains; the “sad historian” of Aberystruth says, “they appeared often in the form of dancing companies, and when they danced, they chiefly, if not always, appeared like children and not as grown men, leaping and frisking in the air,” that they were desirous of enticing { people into their company and used them ill; that they were quarrelsome to a proverb, insomuch that it was said of people at variance, “ni chydunant hwy mwy na Bendith eu Mammau,” (i.e). “ they’ll no more agree than the fairies;” that they seemed not to delight in open plain ground of any kind, far from stones and wood, nor in watery but in dry grounds not far from trees. The parallel is here remarkably correct, and, the inference will naturally occur that both had the same origin. There are indeed few of our popular superstitions that may not be traced / up to some opinion which was consecrated by the religion of the Goths or Celts; nor (to use the language of Mallet) need we always except those which seem in Ž t * º SOH]6. in the dust of the earth, just as worms are in a both human shape and reason, nevertheless they ‘dead carcase. It was indeed from the bódy of the always dwell in subterraneous caverns and amon giant Ymir they issued; at first they were only the rocks.” Edda, fable vii. Mallet's Northſ. ' worms but by order of the Gods they partook of Antiq, vol. 2, p. 42. , . . . . * * History of the parish of Aberystruth, .* " ; 286 HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE, some respects to hold a conformity to doctrines or practices which the christian religion alone could have taught us. -- - Besides these diminutive representatives of man, the Welsh have also fiends peculiar to themselves, or at least generally forgotten by the majority of the inha- bitants of the island; these they call con Anwn” or Anwn's dogs. Anwn is translat- ed by Owen, unknown, but it is rather, as “poor plodding Richards” has it, anwfn, bottomless, and the prince of this country who is personified in the mabynogion may be called the king of immensurable darkness, of that boundless void or space in which the universe floats or is suspended. This Being (say the gossips) is the -- enemy of mankind, and his dogs are frequently heard hunting in the air, some time previous to the dissolution of a wicked person: they are described in the beautiful romance to which I have referred, to be of a clear shining white colour with red ears; no one, with us, pretends to have seen them, but the general idea is that they are jet-black.--To these dogs I conceive Shakspeare alludes in his tempest, when he talks of noise of hunters heard in the air, and spirits in the shapes of hounds, and not to Peter de Loier, “who (says Malone in a note) Hecate t did use to send dogges unto men to fear and terrify them, as the Greeks affirmed.” The corpse candle, which precedes the death of some person in the neighbour- hood, and marks the route of the funeral from the house of the deceased to the church is also a very common topic among our peasantry, who believe it confined - to the diocese of St. David’s: a tradition is likewise very commonly received among them, which preserves the memory of eertain extraordinary and wonderful feats of strength, performed by two oxen of prodigious size, called yehain banog, or the oxen of the summits of the mountains. Davies in his Celtic Researches calls them “elevated oxen,” and supposes them to allude to a sacrifice made by Hu gadarn or Hu the mighty; but whatever may have been the origin of the legends told of these oxen, the tradition seems to have been derived from the mythology of the Druids, and in some measure confirms the antiquity of the Triads, from whence it is evidently derived. : f The funerals in Wales, and the ceremonies preceding and following them, very much resemble those of the Irish, as described in that admirable little volume, entitled, Castle rack-rent. The straw, on which the deceased lay, is set on fire soon - ".. -- - after * Cambrian register, vol. 1, p. 179. . . . + The prince of Anwn and Hecate are man and Price the antiquary, a native of Breconshire who wife, and both are the parents of this fable. For lived much in the English court in the reigns of this and many other peculiarities relative to Wales Henry the eighth and his daughter Elizabeth. Shakspeare was probably indebted to sir John ºn : See triad 75 in the first volume of the Myfyrian Archæology. & HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. £87. after the breath departs, which is a signal of that event; we have ourgwylnös or night of watching, and when ale can be procured in the neighbourhood, a llawen- aôs or night of rejoicing, though this latter phrase is more generally appropriated to the night before a wedding, when the friends of the bridegroom meet and spend the hours in mirth, for the supposed purpose of watching the bride and preventing her flight or concealment. These weddings were formerly attended with some very extraordinary customs, all of which are now disused in the towns and their vicini- ties, but in the hills some few remain, particularly what is called the bidding, and we still occasionally see the herald of this event announcing it to the friends, relations and acquaintance of the bride and bridegroom. He bears in his hand a long hunting pole or staff, to the top of which is nailed or tied a bunch of ribbons of various colours; after greeting the family as he approaches the house, leaning upon his support like the datceiniad pen pastwa of old, he with great gravity and solemnity, addresses them nearly in the words mentioned in the Gentleman's Magazine, of December 1791, page 1 (03, with this difference, that in Brecon- shire, fish is not enumerated among the dainties of which the guests are invited to partake: the form of this invitation I have endeavoured in vain to obtain, though it is still occasionally heard in the highlands, but the substance is a promise of eakes and ale, pipes and tobacco, chairs to sit down, &c. and an undertaking on behalf of the intended bride and bridegroom, that they will return the favour to such of their visitors as may thereafter claim it. - - - On the evening preceding the marriage, the bride's female friends bring her several articles of household furniture; this is called stafell.” On the morning of the ceremony, the lady affects coyness and sometimes conceals herself, but is fortunately always discovered and rescued from the party who are resolved to carry her off. Upon approaching the church, another scene of confusion and bustle. ensues; it should seem now, that some of the company are determined to prevent the celebration of the marriage; one of her male friends, behind whom she is mounted on horseback, though generally without a pillion, makes many attempts to escape and to run- away with her, but the companions of her future husband suc- ceed in dragging her (“notiſing loath”) to the altar. Upon this occasion, the racings and gallopings on both sides are really alarming to by-standers unaccustomed to these exhibitions, and it is astonishing that more accidents have not happened in these sham flights and pursuits. Previously to the young couple's setting out for church, as well as at the public house in the village where they generally retire for a short time after the ceremony is over, the friends of both parties subscribe, accord. - - - ing - * Literally the chamber, but it means here furnishing or furniture for the chamber. $ *88 HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE, *. ing to their abilities, each a few shillings, and the sum is particularly noticed by one of the company; as it is expected to be returned to every person then present who may thereafter be entitled to it on a similar occasion; for this contribution has been long settled to be of the nature of a loan and has been sued for, and recovered at law. Lewis Morris" asserts, that instances have been known where two persons have made biddings under pretence of marriage when it was not intended, in order to get money, which they have divided amongst themselves; such a stra- tagem has never come within my knowledge, nor indeed can it possibly be effected according to our custom; but that of Cardiganshire, which Mr. Morris in part describes, may be different and the money may be there collected on the day, or in the week preceding the marriage. The athletic exercises of throwing the bar, running and wrestling, have been, of • kate years, superseded by the amusements of hunting, ball playing and drinking: in the two first, much activity is certainly required, but the last, frequently, if not al- ways, succeeds to both, until the head and stomach become brimful, and the pockets completely empty: in the course of the cárousal, what they call singing, is introduced, generally two or three begin at different times and in different metres and cadences, (for they cannot be called tunes) and proceed with great satisfaction to themselves, and apparently to the great delight of their parties; if a third or fourth strikes up, the harmony continues; no one complains of interruption, and even if a trifling dispute arises, provided it do not proceed to blows, the minstrels persevere with admirable calmness and composure to the conclusion of their ballads in a tone of voice which is applied without variation to a psalm or a sonnet, a hymn or a march, and than which nothing can be more dissonant and disagreeable, the last note to every song, whatever may be the subject, is protracted, drawn, or rather drawled out to a considerable length, and is in what a musical friend of mine calls a monotonous minor lower key. The beverage drunk at these meetings is principally ale, not above a fortnight old, and the malt highly dried; for they suppose pale beer must be weak, and consequently, as they think, not so strengthening and exhilarating as more potent liquor. Since the late tax, which falls heavily and is very prejudicial to the interests of this country, the use of spirituous liquors has increased; a consequence which every able statesman must depiore, and which it is hoped will be attended to, before the mischief is irremediable and the habit becomes in- veterate. Another of the strongest prejudices of the inhabitants of this country, is an obstinate dislike of innovation in arts and sciences, at the same time that * $ * , º * *... they * Gentlemen’s magazine, Dec. 1791, p. 1103. HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHHRE, 289 they frequently discover a violent fondness for it in religion, the first is ingrafted in them almost with their birth, encouraged and inculcated by their parents during childhood, “grows with their growth, and strengthens with their strength,” the latter is the child of curiosity nurtured by enthusiasm; they are likewise too ready to believe, that provided they pray long, frequently and publicly, the tenets of a pastor or congregation are not very material; hence I have known well meaning people in the same day frequent the church, an anabaptist meeting, the tabernacles of Wesley and of Whitfield, and conclude the day in an assembly of Quakers; this inconsistency however is infinitely more venial than a total disregard and contempt of all forms of prayer and every mode of worship. - In general they are very tenacious of old opinions and proverbial maxims, and it is useless to attempt to convince or to induce them to alter their sentiments. “Nid yw rhodd ond hyd fodd,” is a common saying in Wales; a gift is no longer a gift than the giver pleases so to consider it, and he may, according to their idea of law as well as morality, recall it whenever he chuses: the English barrister may deny this; he may argue, and confute, and confound them, but he will never pro- cure from the Welshman an admission that he is wrong in this position: they likewise hold, that it is much more heinous to strike a man on the high road than in his own house or a field. Though this may seem extraordinary it is easily accounted for. When a felon abjured the realm, he was obliged to walk from the church-porch along the highway, carrying a cross in his hand to the next sea- port, where he was to embark, there to quit the kingdom; while he continued on the highroad, his person was not only protected from injury but from insult, yet if he deviated a single step to the right or the left he might be knocked on the head with impunity. This law known alike in Wales as in England, though with some variation, (as has been seen) and a wish perhaps to protect travellers as they passed through their country, suggested the idea that it would be proper to attach a higher degree of criminality to an interruption or assault committed on the high road “which (say they) should be open and free to every body,” than in any other situation or place. Among the partialities of the men of Brecknock and indeed of their countrymen in general, is a fondness for the meilſionen, trifolium repens or Dutch clover. They have a favourite tune of this name with which they are much pleased. The introduction of the trifolium into this county may probably be attributed to Brychan, who was, as has been related, paternally an Irishman, and it may not perhaps be straining conjecture too far to assume that in Ireland the - shamrock *- P p £90 | HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE, shamrock (of which class, though of a different species, the meillionen is) suc- ceeded the misseltoe in veneration, upon the abolition of druidism and the intro- duction of christianity and consequently of the doctrine of the trinity; as to the deek which is now given as the badge of the principality, curiosity seeks in vain for its allusion, or the circumstance from whence the custom of wearing it on St. David’s day originated. Shakspeare * refers to old chronicles and makes Fluellin assert, that “the Welshmen did goot service in a garden where leeks did grow;” but I have never been fortunate enough to read of the engagement or anecdote he alludes to: all we know at present of this custom is, that it is derived from the English, who probably at first meant it as a mark of contempt, though it has since been adopted by the Britons as an honorary badge of distinction. ' I have stated in a former part of this volume that we are almost reconciled to the English laws; the same thing may be said as to their customs, but there are some that are particularly unmanageable by the mere Welshman; amongst others they entertain a great dislike to surnames. When a complaint is made to a ma- gistrate against a neighbour, his worship is entreated to grant a warrant against “Twm o'r Cwm,” i.e. Tom of the vale;—“Thomas of the vale (repeats the justice) what’s his surname?” “I never heard he had any other name,” is the common reply: if the honest native be compelled reluctantly to adopt the English custom, and to introduce these expletives (as he conceives them) into his family, he and his children it are absolutely bewildered for the two or three next generations.— we'll suppose his name to be Cadwaladr Griffith, his son in endeavouring £O imitate the English fashion will call himself John Cadwaladr Griffith, and his son again will be known by the names of William John Cadwaladr Griffith; until fa- tigued aid tired with dragging after him the long chain of cognomina and ag- nomina, his descendant submits to be called, a PAngloise, Thomas Williams, by which surname his family will ever afterwards be distinguished.: Our Saxon and Norman conquerors do not seem to be aware of this difficulty, for they conceive that a fondness for a multitude of names is one of the character. - istic * Henry 5, scene 7, act 4. t When this custom was first introduced, two liams substituted by Thomas Williams in 1613 º brothers frequently adopted different surnames; for instance, John Thomas had two sons, Griffith and William, Griffith subscribed himself Griffith John, and the other brother wrote, “William Thomas.” - † Thus the Norman name of Bullen after being discontinued from Lawrence Bullen downwards, *was resigned by the family, and the name of Wil- ap John ap Lawrence Bullen. who was the son of William ap Phillip ap Richard These are the pre- sent Abercamlais and Penpont famifies. So also the name of Boys, after ringing the changes of Jenkin William Boys and William Jenkin Boy; is now steadied into Williams of Velinnewydd, though the name of Jenkin still continues to be known among them as a christian name. HiSTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHHRE. . 393 istic foibles of Welshmen; when they describe them by Thomas ap Dafydd ap Sienkin ap Shon ap Thomas ap William ap Evan, &c,. It is true, genealogists, whose business it is to register descents, will inform us, that John was “ap,” or the son of Thomas, the son of William, the son of David, &c.; but in the common. intercourse and concerns of life, they were only known to each other by their christian names and residences; they have also sometimes been described by the beauties or imperfections of their persons, and sometimes by their professions or avocations. Another anomaly prevailed with respect to names and still continues. in the Western parts of Breconshire, particularly in Ystradgynlais and Ystradwellte. The wife retains her maidea name, and should the husband be called Thomas David and her father William John, she subscribes Margaret William formerly written Margaret, v2. William, Margaret verch or the daughter of William, and as late as the beginning of the eighteenth century, this custom. prevailed even in the town of Brecon, for in the chapel of the men of Battle, in the priory church. we have “here lieth the body of Elizabeth Morgan the wife of Lewis Price of this. towne who died 1704, aged 70.” - Another remark occurs before I conclude this part of my subject. I allude to the mode of reckoning used by the Welsh; they proceed as the English do, to fif. teen, when instead of following them to sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, they say. one upon five upon ten, two upon five upon ten, &c. and when they come toº seventy, the substantive slips imperceptibly between the numerals, as, sixty mile and ten, and here it is observable they seldom use the plural of this word, unless they mean to describe an indefinite number of miles; they have likewise a whim-- sicality as to age, which I know not how to account for; in general the substantive precedes the adjective,” as in many other: languages, as dyn jeuange, menyw ieuange, ty newydd, man young, woman young, and house new; but when an old. man, woman, or inanimate substance is mentioned, the rule is reversed, as hen ddyn, hen fenyw, ac hen dy, -an old man, an old woman, and an old house: but I perceive I am digressing into the general peculiarities of the language, which is out of my design, and has already been sufficiently observed upon; I therefore proceed to the commerce of this county, which I must again lament has either been neglected, or not properly attended to. With great advantages for manu- factures we can boast of few, if any, to a great extent, or such as may be consi- # • * dered * Excepting in numerals and particularly the case the substantive is singular) – “ai ddwy- dual, a number peculiar to this language and law luniasant y Sych-dir,” and his two-hand the Greek, where they generally form a com- formed the dry land. pound word; — dau-lyn, two-knee (for in this P p 2. 292 HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE, dered of national or provincial benefit. From the latter end of the sixteenth to the beginning of the eighteenth century, great fortunes were acquired in Brecon, and the vicinity, by the manufacture of woollen cloths; the superior industry or capital of Gloucestershire and Wiltshire rivalled, and at last put a stop to our trade; a few feeble attempts have been since made to restore it, but either from a want of knowledge or of wealth, they have been unsuccessful, and we now sub- mit to export our wool, in order that it may be carried two or three hundred miles, when after paying for converting it into cloth, part returns back at an expence, two thirds of which might have been saved if we employed our own workmen, who proceed no further in this process than merely weaving the manufactures of private families into what are called hannergwe, half wove or raw cloth, sometimes. seen at our fairs and markets. These are rolled up into pieces of from twenty six to thirty two yards long and about one yard and a half broad, the prices from 27s. to £4 10s. per piece; they are afterwards carried into England, and there milled and dyed. The principal exports of the county are wool,” butter and cheese, of the former a considerable quantity is spun and knit into stockings in the hundred of Builth and in different parts of the high lands, which are bought by hosiers and carried into the English market. Some sheep, a few horned cattle, and a considerable number of swine are also frequently driven to Worcester, London, Bristol and the vicinities of these cities: a considerable Quan- tity of timber has likewise of late years been cut down and conveyed to the nearest sea-ports for ship building, though the principal part has been bought up for the use of the iron-masters in the neighbourhood; but this traffick for obvious reasons is on the decline.t. Upon the whole I fear the balance of trade is consi- derably against us, and that we remit more money to London, Bristol, Birming- ham, Yorkshire, and Gloucestershire, for wines, spirituous liquors, articles of gro- cery, mercery, haberdashery and cloths than we receive for the stock and com. modities which we export; if to this we add the large sums paid annually to pos- sessors of lands in Breconshire resident in England; very few of whom spend any ge - - part * I have taken considerable pains, but without success, to ascertain the amount of the exports and imports of Breconshire; from many to whom I ap- plied I received no answers, from others compli- ments instead of information. I must here how- ever except a respectable and extensive dealer in wool, who in reply to my query as to the amount of that article exported from Breconshire, tells me he calculates the average annually at 2500 packs, £60 pounds to the pack, from 14d. to 2s. per pound. † Holinshed is enraged at the consumption of timber in his days (temp. Eliz.) he relates an anecdote of a gentleman who bore threescore trees or expended the value of them, in one pair of gaſ- Zigaskins to shew his strength and bravery; but (says he in a note in the margin) “he caught Such a heate with his sore loade, that he was faigne to go to Rome for physicke.” - HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. 993 part of their rents in this county, there can be no doubt but that more money issues out every year from thence than returns into it. But though the commercial spirit of the country is not so conspicuous as in many parts of the kingdom, the public mind has not been inert; the intercourse of travellers with the principality has been promoted, the conveyance of the ne- cessaries, conveniences and luxuries of life facilitated, and several useful im- provements in agriculture adopted. Amongst the foremost of those projects of general utility may be ranked the formation and construction of turnpike roads, which now intersect Breconshire in all directions and particularly from East to West, but, before I proceed to notice them briefly, it may not be irrelevant to take a retrospective view of the different routes taken by the conquerors of the principality; and by travellers through the county at different periods. - While this district was with propriety called Garthmadrin; and its inhabitants con- sisted principally of foxes, wolves and beasts of prey, the low lands were almost covered or (as a modern historian has it) suffocated, * with wood and brakes, and consequently almost impervious to travellers; when the Romans had cleared their way into the frontiers upon the defeat of Caractacus, Ostorius seems to have ad- vanced some few miles further Westward; though perhaps the utmost extent of his march in this direction was limited to the Gaer, three miles above Brecon, but the brave and indefatigable Julius completed, during the career of his victories and in the course of one life, what to common minds and more ordinary capacities, would have appeared to be the work of ages. The stratum or way known by the name of this commander, as will be seen by the map in this work, pursued nearly the same track as the present turnpike road from Abergavenny to Brecon, from thence, instead of immediately crossing the Usk, it continued on the same side of the river to Gaer, and to the scite of the present Aberbrån bridge or thereabouts; afterwards it again recovered the line of the present highway, and proceeded to . Rhyd-y-briw, eight miles above Brecon, where instead of recrossing the Usk it passed the Senni near its fall into the former river, on the South side of which it pursued its course (as I conjecture, for here it is merely conjecture, and therefore I invite correction) to Tal-y-sarn, Llys Brychan, in Dyffrin Cydrich in Llanddoisant, and so on the same side of the river near Golden Grove, until it joined the Gla- morganshire line of the Julia strata near Carmarthen. Upon the departure of the Romans this road was destroyed, either by neglect or from political motives, so that the recollection of the work was barely kept alive by some of the Roman authors, until the persevering assiduity of British antiquaries of the two last centuries O]] CG - more . * Fosbrook’s Glouc. $94, His TöRY OF BRECáNGCKSHIRE. A more explored the vestiges, retraced the footsteps and restored the long lost for- tresses and stations of the earliest of our conquerors, throughout the whole extent. of Britannia secunda, – e. Tº TT \ The Roads made by the Saxons in their incursions were hastily formed, badly executed, and as deficient in plan and system as their modes of warfare; sometimes- we see them entering the confines of Breconshire, on the South East from Mon- mouthshire, at other times their inroads were made through. Herefordshire, and at others through Shropshire on the North East : but wherever these barbarians pene- trated, they left a gloomy solitude behind them, while deserted villages and the ashes or ruins of prostrated habitations, marked their progress and wrote the his- tory of their expeditions, in characters too legible to be mistaken ; for as plunder and not permanent subjugation was their principal object, it formed no part of their system (if such they could be said to possess) to facilitate the intercourse of travel- ters, or even the march of armies through the principality; they were governed. only by momentary rapacity or sanguinary revenge, and looked not for future ad- vantages to their posterity, consequently whenever we hear of Rhyd-y-Saison, Bwlch-y-Saison &c. the Saxon’s ford, the Saxon's pass. &c. we must not conclude: that there are roads near them, but that those situations only preserve the memory of the irruptions, perhaps of a victory gained near the spot by these depredators. But though the points of attack were thus numerous and uncertain, their principal and common line of march was through. Hereford, from thence called Henffordd. and Henffordd y Saison, the old road of the Saxons: from this country they en- tered Radnorshire, continuing on the North side of the Wye till they came toº Builth, where there was a bridge, we know as early as the thirteenth century, pro- bably there was one of much earlier construction. Here they usually crossed the river and proceeded on the South side of the Irvon to Llwydlo-fach and into Car. marthenshire. During the reigns of the two first Edwards, this seems to have been the principal road through Brecoushire, and in the course of this period, se. verål commissions issued, directed to the servants and ministers of the English. crown, “ad prosternendas quercus,” in the hundred of Builth, for the accommo- dation of travellers; for this labour as well as for the protection of their persons a. tax was levied at Builth castle, (which from this circumstances may be said to be the first turnpike house erected in Breconshire) called Porthant Herwyr, or a tax on alien merchants or drovers. Of this contribution, at first levied ad libitum by the lord marcher, the king of England did not scruple to accept of a proportion. It is. paid at this day, under the name of drift toll, but the amount was ascertained and limited in the time of Charles the second. In the reign of Edward the third, the HISTORY OF BRECKNoCKSHRE. 293 the other nearly parallel road, through the great forest of Brecknock, appears to have been newly planned or in a great measure to have been directed by some tracts or remains of the Julia strata then visible, and perhaps about this time the little fortress at Rhyd-y-briw was built for the protection of passengers, and garri- soned by some troops of the lord of Brecknock: before this time a great part of this tract was inhabited by outlaws and by those native inhabitants of the country, t who being driven into the wilds and fastnesses of Breconshire, on the conquest by Bernard Newmarch, occasionally poured down like a torrent into the low lands, and ravaged the possessions of the tenants and dependants of the Normans; these irruptions made travelling through this tract dangerous, we therefore find that the ºusual route of those whom war or business led through Breconshire previous to this time, was through Monmouthshire into the vale of Grwyne-fawr, to Talgarth, ilanddew, to Tair derwen, crossing the Builth road to Brecon, and leaving that town one mile and a half to the South, thence to Aberyscir, Trallong and Lliwel, 'On this road, and soon after it enters Breconshire, Richard earl of Clare was mur- dered by the instigation of Iorwerth of Caerleon, as the English nobleman was foolishly piping along, after having imprudently dismissed his soldiers and attendants, and by this road Giraldus Cambrensis travelled from his house at Llanddew, to St. David’s : perhaps this line with some few deviations, if properly and skilfully planned and executed, would still be found the most eligible that can be formed: inasmuch as the traveller need not cross the Usk, and consequently the expence. of two bridges might have been avoided, further than as they may be necessary for communication in other directions. Though those three roads continued accessible to travellers for several centuries, they were little more than bridle ways, or as Mr. Valentine Morris of Piercefieldſ very humourously called them “ditches;” they were barely wide enough to permit even-one carriage to be dragged along, and such was the difficulty and delay in tra- velling over the best of them until the middle of the last century; that Sir John Phillips, in his journies from Picton to attend his duty in parliament, was with difficulty able with a coach drawn by six horses, to travel from Llandovery to Hay, a distance of only thirty five miles, in the course of two long summer's days. No waggons or chaises let for hire were seen on the road, and those articles of trade for which we were indebted to the London and Bristol markets, were either brought in small carts or low sledges or else in panniers or barrels on horses’ backs. About the middle of the last century some gentlemen, feeling the inconvenience rising from the want ofgood roads, proposed to repair and widen the old lanes, by individual - § * Coxe's Monmouthshire, 296 HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE, individual subscription, and in September 1765 the Breconshire agricultural society agreed that if any parish would raise a sum over and above the statute duty, (not exceeding twenty pounds) toward the repairs of any part of the post-roads through - the county leading from the county of Caermarthen to the county of Hereford, the inhabitants of such parish should receive from this society one half of such sum, to be laid out for the repairs of such road, by any person whom this meeting should appoint;-such work to be performed before November 1756. These exertions were attended with considerable effect; four * of the parishes on the post-road appear to have availed themselves of the liberality of this society, and a stage coach having been established to run from Brecon to London, once a week, through Abergavenny, Monmouth and Gloucester, in 1757 they extended the same premiums to the parishes repairing the coach road over the Bwlch hill, and to the road in Llangynidr leading to coal and lime, as they allowed towards the im- provement of the post roads. A general surveyor of the highways throughout the county was appointed, at a salary of twenty pounds per annum; rewards were given t() parish officers employed thereon to encourage them in their activity, allowances - made towards hedging and fencing to those who gave their ground for widening them, and various other improvements were suggested and acted upon by this truly public spirited association: but patriotic and laudable as these efforts most certainly were, the subscription of individuals was found totally inadequate to answer the desired ends: in 1767 therefore, resort was had to parliament, and an act passed to repair and widen the principal roads in the county of Brecon: under the authority of this law the commissioners erected tollgates and turnpike houses and proceeded to put the spirit of the act into execution; to enable them to carry their design into effect, they were impowered to borrow 10,000l. on the credit of the tolls, and to take such other steps as might be expedient and conduce to the furtherance of the work. * * - * , Under these and other laws which followed at different times considerable im- provements have been made in the direction and formation of the roads, the COn- venience and comfort of travellers promoted, and the profits of the produce of the earth have increased rapidly. For many years after the establishment of the stage coach by Mr. Harper of the Golden Lion, it continued to run only to Brecon; soon after the turnpike road was finished, it was extended to Carmarthen, and upon the adoption of Mr. Palmer's plan, an attempt was made to bring the mail by coach through Hereford and Hay, but some real or imaginary difficulties occurring in this route, it has since taken the road through Gloucester, Monmouth, Abergavenny, - 2. ' -- -Brecon. * These parishes were Llanddew, Llanspyddid, Hay and St. David's in Llanfaes. HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE, 29; ** # * Brecon and Carmarthen, to Milford, every night in the week, excepting on Tuesday, and Friday on the return. Several waggons have also been esta- 3-yl Å ished for the carriage of heavy articles to and from Brecon and the other > f $.3 × 3 Nº towns in that country, which set out and return every week, so that a comparative bustle and activity must appear to prevail here, as is admitted by those who recollect the origin of those improvements, but alas! perfection is not to be expected in the works of man, and it is very seldom that we are not enabled to discover in the most prudent designs and the most zealous exertions very consider- able errors and glaring defects. The trade of Breconshire, for instance, has received much benefit from the measures adopted from the middle to the latter end of the last century, yet an habitual inattention to the continual repairs necessary to preserve a road, is the general characteristic of this and perhaps all other counties.—No sooner has the arm of the law compelled the farmer to attend to his own interest and to do his duty, though a considerable expence is incurred by the issuing of the usual processes; no sooner has the indictment been discharged and the parishioners exonerated from punishment for their former neglect, than the same fault again occurs; so far from employing a person to repair and preserve the road daily in each parish, they suffer it to become worse and worse, until some person from public spirit or private interest, feels it again necessary to apply the blister upon their backs, to prove to the world that - * - “Men are but children of a larger growth,” And that nothing but holding the rod over them, and the repeated use of it, will enforce their attention even to their own interests: against this unconquerable in- dolence as well as the almost universal use of narrow wheeled waggons, it is in vain that the man of science argues or the magistrate inveighs; inveterate habits continue the one error, and a hatred of innovation and an ill judged parsimony, as injurious *\ to the farmer himself, as it is prejudicial to the public roads, perpetuates the other. There is also a want of judgment and skill, even now frequently observable in this county, in the direction of the principal, and other highways. The plan and principles on which a road should be laid out are at present perfectly understood, and universally admitted, thoughseldom attended to, nature has pointed them out to us as clearly as if she had explained them in words; her roads are rivers; let those be followed as closely as possible: and from the town of Usk to Carmarthen, a distance of eighty miles, through a country remarkably mountainous and uneven, a *oad may be formed in which there need not be a single ascent that may not be w gained Q d 298 * HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. gained with ease, and on full gallop by a post chaise and pair, without injuring the horses or alarming the traveller, and this only by attending to the obvious directions I have hinted at.—Suppose we set off from the town of Usk in Monmouthshire; ... the river of that name should be followed upwards, as closely as possible, as far as -Trecastle, then the little brook Llogyn to its source, from thence on the South East of Gwydderig downwards, and at the bottom of Cwmdwr, as near the river as may be, instead of climbing or clinging to the side of the mountain as the present improved road does, and lastly we pursue the course of the Towy to Caermarthen, never losing . sight of it, and only keeping out of the reach of floods. Of late years it is certain that great improvements have been made in Breconshire, by avoiding the tremendous hills between Llandovery and Trecastle, and the very picturesque deviation at Bwlch Aberbrän, can never be sufficiently commended, but while the unnecessary labour of climbing up and down another Bwlch remains, however we may be entitled to approbation for what has been effected, a nuisance still stares us in the face, which as long as it continues, will be a reproach to our public spirit, our industry and our exertions.” . - The next, and I am sorry to say, the only work of general utility in the county of Brecon yet to be recorded, was suggested, as most, if not all, commercial specula- tions have been, by private interest; how far it may repay the projectors and proprietors, time only can determine, but a public benefit it must certainly be admitted to be: if turnpike roads facilitate and expedite communications through the kingdom, and produce benefits not necessary here to be recapitulated, naviga- ble canals are most assuredly an improvement upon them ; they require less money to keep them in repair, when well Constructed, the whole expence of the reparation is upon the proprietors, and not upon the inhabitants of the parishes through which they pass, they carry greater burdens with much less expenditure than they are conveyed by land, and in short, they have so much the superiority over high roads, that it looks like garrulity to enumerate, or even to mention any of them, if my own experience had not convinced me, that there are men of j udgment and sense who admit and feel the good effect of the turnpike laws and system, yet deny the utility of inland navigation. The example, however, of several public spirited men in England and the probability of emolument which the proprietors of a neighbouring canal in Glamorganshire were likely to receive, induced a number of persons to subscribe towards making a navigable cut from Brecon to join what is called the Monmouthshire canal at Pont y Moel near Pontypool, and by that means to open a communication from the heart of this inland county with the Bristol channel.— This project was started at a period favourable to the purpose, when a mania very - - diºerent * Since I wrote the above I learn that the liberal and public spirited proprietor of Buckland, has offered his land to the public gratis, for the purpose of avoiding the nuisance complained of. HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE, 90s different from the Hydrophobia raged in this, and the neighbouring counties; it was proposed to execute and complete the work by subscription, in shares of one hundred pounds, which bore a premium of fifty pounds, sixty pounds, and even seventy pounds per cent, before one shilling was advanced: this disorder soon cured itself and the work has proceeded with steadiness, though not with rapidity. In the spring of the year 1793 an act was passed, entitled “an act for making and maintaining a navigable canal from the town of Brecknock to the Monmouthshire canal, near the town of Pontypool, in the county of Monmouth, and for making and maintaining rail ways and stone roads from such canal to several iron works and mines in the counties of Brecknock and Monmouth.” The company of pro- prietors for carrying this act into execution held their first general assembly at the Golden Lion in Brecknock, on the sixteenth of May in that year. The primary object of their attention was the construction of rail roads for facilitating the car- riage of coal and lime down into the valley: for this purpose a rail road was immediately undertaken, and in the spring of the year 1796 finished, from the river Usk, at Llangrwyne, through a rugged dell called Cwm Clydach, to the mountain, at a place called Rhyd y blew or Hairford, communicating with other roads of the same construction formed by the Monmouthshire canal and Trevill companies. This road is five miles and six furlongs in length, and cost, including the interest on the calls, while making The cutting of the canal commenced in April 1796, it was navigated up to Llangynidr hridge, a length of eight miles and a half. The remaining ten miles from thence to Brecon was completed in December 1800, and on the twenty fourth of that month, the first boat-load of coal was brought up to that town from Gellifelen colliery in Llanelly, being part of the Breconshire possessions of the duke of Beaufort. - Notwithstanding the work was thus far advanced, the navigation was impeded for two or three years afterwards, in consequence of repeated breaches and slips, which were perhaps to be attributed more to the nature of the soil through which this difficult undertaking was carried than to the errors of the engineers; but to what- ever cause they may be imputed, they certainly increased the expence enormously, for instead of £100,000, as originally estimated to be sufficient to compleat the whole canal, when ample allowance was thought to be made for accidents and trifling disbursements, we now find that ºf 150,000 already expended, leaves about ten miles of the line unfinished and indeed untouched. At present (in the year 1805) work- men are employed upon it at Llanfoist, nearly opposite Abergavenny on the South side of the Usk. * . The Q q 2 300 HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHHRE. The money which the proprietors were authorized to raise having been all ex- pended in the execution of the work, it became necessary again to apply to par- liament to enable them to borrow a sum not exceeding eighty thousand pounds by optional loans, with liberty to the lenders to convert the sums they advance into shares, if the profits of the undertaking shall turn out to be lucrative and exceed the usual interest of money. Upon the probability of success and the benefits likely to arise to the proprietors, there is much difference of opinion, but this canal certainly possesses some advantages not common to all works of this nature.—I shall point-out only one at present, but the value of that can hardly be too highly estimated. I allude to the certainty of a supply of water in the driest seasons; in the autumn of 1803 when the want of water was felt in most canals in this kingdom, the Brecknock and Abergavenny canal was copiously supplied and its banks full. - The tonnage on the finished part of the canal from lady day 1803 to lady, day 1804, amounted to £3007 0s. 6d. arising almost exclusively from the carriage of coal and limestone, as no merchandise can be expected until the junction with the Monmouthshire canal can be effected. The winter of 1803. being remarkably mild, the consumption of coal was considerably below the average; and unfortunately and unaccountably the profits of last year were some few pounds short of those of the preceding year, but from hence forward a much greater trade in that article may be expected, especially as a certain supply. at Brecon may be depended upon: the dissapointments at first experienced by those who sent their waggons from a great distance to the wharf of Messrs. Wil- kins, Lloyd and Co.” in consequence of the frequent accidents and breaches in the canal were very injurious to the concern, though perhaps no blame could be imputed to the proprietors or their agents: the soil through which it runs consists for the three or four first miles of what is called a red rab or shale, in which marl is intermixed and from thence downwards through Breconshire it is generally gravelly and sandy, consequently very ill calculated for such a work, as the bottom and sides require a thorough lining of clay or (as it is termed) puddling, a very expensive as well as tedious process. This canal contains four feet and a half of water, is three yards wide, and calcu- lated for the navigation of boats or barges carrying twenty five tons burden, which bring up the coal from Clydach to Brecon in one day and return the next in summer; in winter they take two days each way. The level of the cut is very remarkable. From Brecon to the sixth lock at Llangynidr, a distance of about ten miles, there are six locks and a fall of fifty nine feet eight inches, from thence {Q} . * A public wharf has been since inclosed, near the Watton turnpike gate, ~i? HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. . . 30 i to the junction with the Monmouthshire canal, being about fourteen miles, there is not one, and from thence to Newport, being only eight miles and a half, there are thirty four locks and a fall of three hundred and forty feet, and from thence to the Bristol channel there is a fall of twelve feet, so that Brecon is four hundred and eleven feet eight inches, or one hundred and thirty seven yards eight inches above the level of the sea, The rates of tonnage by the act of 1793 are fixed as follows. Iron stone, iron ore, lead ore, coals, culm, coals, cinders and charcoal on the canal or rail roads, two pence per ton each mile, Lime, limestone, tiles, slate, bricks, flagstones and all other stones, clay, sand, hay, straw and corn in the straw, and all materials for the repair of roads or any kind of manure, one penny, Cattle, sheep, swine and other beasts conveyed on the canal, four pence. Iron and lead conveyed upon the canal or rail roads, three pence. Timber, goods, wares and merchandizes and all other articles conveyed on the canal or rail roads, four pence. [. sº - } e HAPTE R xi. General State of Agriculture, Breconshire Agricultural Society, its Establishment, Rules, &c. Observations on the Soil of the Hundred of Builth, Talgarth and Vale of Usk, Size of Farms and Nature of Tenures, Course of Husbandry, Breed of Cattle, Horses and Sheep, Common Manures, Prices of Labour in this County, &c. - - NHE progress of the science of agriculture, though not in so improved a state as in the vicinity of the metropolis, and other large cities and towns in En- gland, has yet advanced much further in Breconshire than in the neighbouring counties in the principality. This superiority we certainly owe in some measure to the establishment of the Breconshire agricultural Society, first instituted in the month of March 1755, being as early, if not the earliest association of this kind in the island; it originated in a club or meeting of some respectable gentlemen of the county, assembled at stated periods for amusement and social intercourse, but which the public spirit of the party directed to more beneficial purposes. A ma- gistrate of considerable literary talents (now no more) moved with an almost mys- terious conciseness, “ that something should be done to benefit the county”; this being seconded and the motion carried, that something was instantly defined to be the establishment of a society to be called the Brecknockshire society, formed for the encouragement of agriculture and manufactures, and promoting the gene- ral good of the county. At their second meeting on the 16th of April 1755, the following rules were submitted and adopted. - I. It is agreed by all the members that no other person shall be admitted but by the approbation of a majority of the present subscribers, to be determined by ballot, and pay five shillings each for admission.—Gentlemen who refuse to subscribe before to the first meeting to pay one guinea each. - I. Every subscriber to pay for his ordinary each meeting one shilling, and to pay for his extraordinary the like sum. III. Every HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE, Sos *x a’ III. Every member absenting himself from dinner to forfeit one shilling towards the ordinary, and the like sum towards the general fund of the society. IV. Dinner to be on table at two o'clock, and the society to break up at ten. V. Any member to be at liberty, with the consent of the president of the day, to bring a friend to dine; he paying for such friend's ordinary and extraordinary. WI. All fines and forfeitures to be applied to the common fund, and to be dis- posed of by the majority of the members; no less than twenty one to be present. VII. All questions or differences of opinion to be referred to the president, but if a ballot is demanded, the majority shall decide. " - VII. When any member speaks on matters relating to the society, he is to stand up and direct his discourse to the president, if two or more should be up at the same time, the president to name the person first to be heard. : IX. If an equal number should appear upon any ballot, the president to have the casting vote. -i. * - . . ~~ - - ... • * GHARLES POWEL, President. SUBSCRIBING MEMBERS. - Sir EDWARD WILLIAMS, Baronet | EDWARD JEFFREYS, Esq. JoHN HUGHES, Esq. JAMES PARRY, Esq. HUGH PENRY, Esq. | CHARLES LLOYD, Esq. CHARLEs DAVIDS, Esq. || BARTHOLOMEW COKE, Surgeon John PHILLIPS, Esq. JOHN LLOYD, Esq. WILLIAM MORGAN, Clerk JOHN WILLIAMS, Clerk THOMAS WILLIAMS, Clerk || PENRY WILLIAMS, Esq. MARMADUKE GWYNNE, Esq. || THOMAS PRICE, Esq. Their attention was first turned towards the sowing and cultivation of turnips for feeding sheep and cattle, for which they offered a premium of five pounds to the person who raised the best crop on a farm of fifty pounds per annum and up- wards, and inferior premiums to the second best, and for raising crops on smaller farms, which they afterwards increased, and it must be admitted that after experi- encing difficulties and encountering prejudices suggested by that dislike and ha- tred of innovation, which characterizes the country, they have ultimately suc- ceeded in introducing this valuable vegetable into general use in this part of the principality. In their next attempt I have again to lament they were not so for- tunate. At their meeting in September 1756, it was proposed and agreed to, that a premium of four pounds should be given to the person who would produce before the 99th of September 1755, the best piece of drab coloured cloth, manufactured in - . . . . T - this 304 HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE, this county, from raw wool, the produce thereof measuring twenty one yards long and one yard wide, two pounds for the second best, and one pound for the third : this subject was again followed up at their subsequent meetings, and one of the members (the late Mr. Powel of Castlemadoc) was empowered to lay out a sum not exceeding five pounds in purchasing wheels and other necessaries for spinning flax and wool, and in order to promote the trade, it was proposed to establish a market within this county for woollen yarn; this proposal drawn out at considera- ble length, and now recorded in their books, does equal honour to the heads and the hearts of the gentleman * who framed and the society who adopted it. It is in the following words. “Commerce is that mutual intercourse between differ- ent countries, by which the deficiencies of one are supplied out of the superflui- ties of another. Trade is the means of performing that intercourse which is carried on either by sea or land, and arises out of the natural produce of the country, or else from the manufacturing of materials brought from abroad. As countries are more or less supplied with the productions of art or nature, they are comparatively rich or poor. The strength and riches of all countries depend upon the number of their inhabitants, provided they are industrious and have sufficient employ to enable them to support themselves and to lay out the produce of their labour in the necessaries and conveniences of life; for where there is no relief for the labouring hands, they must either starve or quit their country to seek a main- tenance; in which case society is not only deprived of their labour, but of the benefit of their consumption and the superannuated the weak and the infirm, will remain an useless load to be supported and maintained without contributing to- wards the increase of the common stock. Improvements in agriculture and tillage depend upon the quickness of markets, and a ready demand for the produce of the ground; which must result either from exportation abroad or from consump- tion at home, by an increase of inhabitants; for to raise a greater quantity of pro- visions than there is a constant demand for, is only lost labour. r An increase of inhabitants can in no way be attained but by providing a constant employment to detain the industrious hands at home, or by plenty of provisions to invite strangers to settle in a country, and when the demands for the necessa. ries of life become more extensive, they will excite the industry of the farmer, to try new experiments in husbandry, which will enable him (by the enlarged quan- tities) to afford his goods at a lower price, and at the same time to be a greater gainer, from whence it is evident, that the landed and trading interests mutually promote each other. - - - - * - 'The * The late William Scourfield, Esq., (as I have been informed.) .* HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. 303 The advantages of trade and manufactures, being thus obvious, it now remains to enquire, in what way they may most effectually be introduced among us: and here, the staple commodity of the kingdom, of which valuable material this county is amply provided, immediately offers itself to our consideration. - The very great quantities of wool, which are annually sold out of this county, would, if manufactured at home, furnish employment for all our working hands, and would greatly enrich the country at large, but, as the making of cloth, is too tedious a process, and requires too large a fund to support it, to be of any imme- diate service to the poor, in a country where no woollen manufactory is already established, it is requisite to contrive some method more expeditious and less expensive, which it is apprehended can in no way more immediately and more effectually be attained, than by the establishment of a market for yarn, to be held either monthly or quarterly, as the demand of it shall require. That the clothing countries have occasion for much greater quantities of yarn and worsted, than they can be furnished with at home, is apparent from the many ship-loads of each, that are annually imported from Ireland, but if they could be supplied nearer home, it is not unreasonable to suppose, that they would willingly avoid the large expences of commission and freight, besides the hazards of the sea, so that a quick and ready sale, for whatever quantities of yarn can be produced, is far from being improbable. And if the wool that is raised in this country, could but be so far manufactured, it would give employment to many of those idle hands, who are now a burthen to their neighbours, and in a kind of work they are already acquainted with. The returns of which will be so quick and immediate, that the poorest persons will not be excluded the benefit of it. If such a scheme could take effect, it would be a means of enabling the clothiers already settled in the county, to carry on their business, in a much more extensive manner, than they can possibly do at present; and it would besides, lay a foundation for introducing several other branches of trade, that are at present unknown. in the next place the landed interest would be greatly benefited by it; for as every pack of wool, that is now carried out of the country, would then double the price it is now sold for, all that additional profit would instantly return into the hands of the farmer, for the necessaries and conveniences of life; because the ma- nufacturers would not then be satisfied with the mean fare they are now obliged to be content with. - - There is besides another kind of employ, which, if effectually introduced, might be equally beneficial with the manufacturing our wool; and in some respects, - would R. p. 306 HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE, would be even superior; because it might be rendered more universal,—and that is the linen manufacture. - * , The spinning of wool, is an employ only calculated for the lower sort of people'; whereas the other comprehends all ranks and degrees. The delicacy of the finest lady cannot be disgusted with the spinning of flax; and as example is far more prevalent than precept; we have that confidence in the patriotism of the ladies, that they will gladly embrace an opportunity of setting a pattern, that may be productive of such happy effects. Another, and by no means an inconsiderable advantage from the linen manufacture, is, that it will give an additional and valu- able crop to the farmer. Since it has by experience been proved, that during the time the ground lies fallow, in order to dress it for wheat, a crop of flax may be, raised, or else after turnips, which render the ground extremely fille, and free from weeds; flax * may be sown with, clover, to fit the land for a succeeding crop of grain; so that a profit equal and sometimes superior to the best wheat is here offered to the industrious husbandman, at a small expence, and that without loss of time, or interfering with his usual course of tillage. Such are the benefits of husbandry and trade; but yet a greater still remains. and is their necessary consequence, a general habit of industry, by which, and by which alone, excess and sloth, the ruin of the health and morals of mankind, can be subdued, and which by its eonstant attendant, plenty, spreads content and happi- mess around. Industry, which magic-like can smooth the rugged mountain's brows and call forth landscapes from the dreary waste! whose manifest and various gifts, as they would tire description to paint, so we shall only earnestly recommend them to those who have their country’s good at heart;. and that a foundation first may be formed; it is proposed, - - I. That there shall be a market established for the sale of yarn, to be held at the hall in Brecon, on the 9th day of June next ensuing, and to be continued. monthly. -- t º - - - II. That for the encouragement of manufacturers and to induce them to attendº at the market, there shall be premiums given to those who shall produce on that. day the greatest quantity of yarn, according to the regulations undermentioned. º iii. That * That experienced agriculturist Mr. Billingsley in his general view of the agriculture of the county of Somerset, drawn up in the year 1795 for the con- sideration of the board of agriculture, observes, that flax seeded is a great impoverisher of land, but if pulled while in blossom it is an excellent prepara- tive for turnips, which should always follow a flax crop instead of wheat. He estimates the expence of . an acre of watered flax, including beer, tools, and other incidental charges, at £12,0s 4d; the pro-. duce of ditto, ºf 14 Os 4d; leaving a profit to the grower of £2 10s per statute acre, which cannot be considered as very profitable, for it is a very. precarious crop. - HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. 307 iſ. That it has appeared that frauds have been committed in the winding up yarn into balls or bottoms, and in order to prevent as far as possible all deceit, which is the destruction of trade and ruin of credit, it is required that all the yarn exposed to sale at the market shall be made up in hanks, each hank to contain twelve cuts or skains, each cut or skain one hundred and twenty threads, and each thread two yards and a half, or ninety inches. - - t IV. That the above mentioned premiums shall be distributed in the following proportions, viz. to the person who shall produce the greatest number of hanks of her own spinning, between the 20th of February next and the 9th of June fol- lowing, being wool of the growth of this county, the sum of twenty shillings; se- cond best, seventeen shillings and sixpence; third best, fifteen shillings; fourth best, twelve shillings and sixpence; fifth best, ten shillings and sixpence; sixth best, seven shillings; seventh best, five shillings; and eighth best, two shillings and sixpence. - - - W. That, in order to induce the manufacturers to excel in the goodness as well as the quantity of this work, there shall be given to the person who shall produce on the ninth of July the finest yarn, not less than ten hanks of her own spinning, within the time limited, being wool of this county, the sum of twenty shillings; to the second best, fifteen shillings, and to the third best, ten shillings. VI. and Wii. That as habits are much more easily acquired in the early than in the after periods of life, and in order to excite a spirit of industry in the rising ge- neration, whatever young person, from eighteen to twelve years of age, shall pro- duce the finest yarn of her own spinning, being wool of this county, such person shall receive the sum of ten shillings; second best, seven shillings and sixpence; and third best, five shillings. - - VIII. Whatever child, under twelve years of age, shall produce the finest yarn of her own spinning, not less than five hanks, being wool of this county, shall be entitled to the sum of ten shillings; Second best, seven shillings and sixpence; third best, two shillings and sixpence. - IX. And that the linen manufacture may not want due encouragement, what- ever child from eighteen to twelve years of age shall produce the finest linen yarn. of her own spinning, not less than twelve hanks, shall receive a premium of ten shillings; second best, eight shillings; third best, six shillings; fourth best, four shillings; fifth best, two shillings and sixpence. - " : . X. Whatever child under twelve years of age shall produce the finest linen yarn of her own spinning, not less than ten hanks, shall receive a premium of ten - shillings {t. 2. R, r & 308 HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. shillings; second best, eight shillings; third best, six shillings; fourth best, four shillings; fifth best, two shillings and sixpence. - XI. In order to enable the manufacturers to hank up their yarn in a proper manner, which can only be done by a reel, there shall be a pattern reel left at Mr. Harper's at the Golden Lion, and it is hoped that the gentlemen of the so- ciety will each, at his own expence, send one reel into the respective parishes wherein their estates are situated. * . -- XII. That for a future encouragement to the manufacturers, it is determined that whatever quantities of yarn shall remain unsold at the first market, the same shall be bought by the society at the market price. - N. B. No person shall be entitled to two premiums. - No toll is due for the yarn that is exposed to Sale at the hall as above men- tioned.” - - - " . Plausible as these proposals were, maturely as they appear to have been weighed and admirably as they are worded, they do not seem to have been acted upon or if this market was ever held it was not established or of long continuance; but so fleet. ing and imperfect is the memory of man, that though there are members of this society as well as inhabitants of the place still living, who resided at the time of this resolution in Brecknock, yet none of those who now remain are able to give correct or authentic information as to the impediments which stifled this patriotic scheme in its infancy. Claims were at different times made and allowed for the manufacture of woollen cloth, pursuant to the regulations of the society, but either the poverty or incapacity of the tradesmen employed in these works, or else a hint of the opposition from Gloucestershire and Wiltshire, (as before suggested) or perhaps all these causes combined, contributed to deaden the exertions of commercial Inen, and cramp that spirit of enterprize so absolutely necessary to the success of specu- lations of this nature; a similar fate marked the attempt of this society to establish a linen manufacture in the vicinity of Brecon, but this, notwithstanding the advan- tage pointed out in the memorial or proposals copied above, though more expensive was a less useful project as far as it affected the interests of the county and principality, the failure of this speculation injured only the individuals that subscribed towards it, but the loss or rather the obstructions thrown in the way of the establishment of - the * This resolution is patriotic but not legal; for can be exempt from that impostwithout the consent however prejudicial tolls may be to trade no com- of the mayor, bailiff, chief officer or other person modities sold in a market in a town or borough, for whose benefit they are collected, and if that cons, having a chartered or prescriptive right to the tolls sent was here obtained it should have been stated. 3. - - Jº. So. g - * * - , * HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE, 309 the manufacture of woollen cloths on an extensive plan, was a provincial if not a national misfortune. Let us hope it may again be revived under more auspi- cious circumstances and with better success. : - 3. The society continued to encourage and promote this trade, though their efforts gradually relaxed until about the year 1780, after which, with the exceptions of a few premiums for spinning, their attention was principally directed to agriculture. At this day the rewards offered by this institution are confined to the following - objects; the cultivation and improvement of rough land overrun with fern, broom, furze or heath, draining boggy soils, sowing, hoeing and drilling turnips, sowing turnip seed, rye, winter vetches or colé seed, as spring fodder for sheep, top dress- ing turnips, young clover or grassland with peat ashes, sowing clover, acorns, ash- keys, chesnut, beech-mast and other timber trees, raising hawthorn plants and prickly holly plants fit for transplanting, improving the plough and lessening the number of horses or oxen used in tillage, encouraging women to reap wheat, re- warding men and women servants in agriculture, for their good behaviour and continuance for a length of time in the same service, discovering a receipt for the destruction of vermin and for the improvement of the breed of horses, cattle and swine. - - Beneficial as these exertions were to the interest and prosperity of the county of * Brecon, to the natale solum of the subscribers, they did not forget they owed a pa- ramount duty to their sovereign and to their country at large; when therefore this kingdom was threatened with an invasion by the French in 17 56, the following - loyal address was presented to the throne. - • ? .* - “To the King's most excellent Majesty, The humble and dutiful address of the Breconshire society, formed for the en- couragement of agriculture and man ufactures, and for promoting the general good of the county, assembled at their general monthly meeting held at Brecon, on Wednesday March 10, 1756, -- . . . May it please your Majesty, - - - We your majesty's most dutiful and loyal subjects, with hearts filled with grateful sentiments of your majesty's paternal care for the welfare of these king- doms, do humbly beg leave to express the deep sense we have of your majesty's wisdom in the vigorous measures you have so steadily pursued, in asserting your undoubted right to your American dominions, in the prudent and interesting trea- ties you have so successfully concluded, and in the happy effects of your great humanity and royal bounty to the unfortunate sufferers at Lisbon, - - - - - - . These 310 HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE, These, with many other instances of your majesty's wisdom and benevoi. ence, all concur to add fresh glories to your reign, to render your person and go- ºvernment dear to the heart of every Briton, and to defeat the insolent and unjust usurpation of an ambitious and perfidious power, envious of your goodness and our happiness—and if an invasion or any other emergency during the present critical conjuncture, should require your majesty's loyal subjects to appear in the defence of your sacred person or the security of the protestant succession in your illustri- ous house, we hope our actions will then declare how sensible we are of the benefits derived to us, from the wisdom and equity of your majesty's government; in support of which, we with true zeal offer to form ourselves into a troop of light horse complete, and will be ready to march, at your majesty's command and at our own expence, to any part of Great Britain, under the discipline and command o such experienced officers as your majesty may be pleased to send for that purpose, and most gracious sovereign, if this method of shewing our sincere attachment to your majesty and illustrious family should not meet with your majesty's royal approbation, we are ready to dispose of our persons and fortunes in Süch a manner as your majesty in your great wisdom may think expedient. - And as the prosperity and safety of the nation entirely depend, under God, on the continuance of our present happiness, from the influence of your majesty's wisdom and justice; we therefore offer up our most ardent prayers to the great and supreme disposer of all things, for the health and preservation of your royal person, and that your endeavours for the public welfare may be attended with success and crowned with honour, so that the present crisis may hereafter appear among the shining periods of the British history. * º - - WILLIAM POWEL, Gent. President. Upon this occasion, Mr. Howel Harris of Trevecca, a popular and distinguished preacher among the methodists of Mr. Whitfield's tenets, proposed to the society, that if his majesty should accept of their offer, he would at his own expence furnish ten light horsemen completely armed and accoutred to attend them as an addition to their troop, that on the twentieth of April 1756, he would bring ten men to enlist on the then emergency, and that the bounty-money allowed such recruits should be paid to the treasurer of the society, to be laid out by the members as they should think proper. The services of these agriculturists were deemed more likely to be beneficial to their country in a civil than in a military capacity, but Mr. Harris ... procured the recruits at his own expence, and the bounties allowed by government were paid into the hands of the treasurer, and applied in rewarding industry and promoting HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. 3 i i promoting the improvement of the county of Brecknock-For this patrioti offer, as well as contribution to the fund, Mr. Harris was elected an honorary member, as was his brother, the celebrated astronomer Mr. Joseph Harris. The society has likewise had the honour of enrolling in their number the names of Peregrine Thomas Bertie late duke of Ancaster, Dr. Tucker late dean of Glou- cester, the late Mr. Valentine Morris of Piercefield, Thomas Bathurst of Lidney, Esq. Dr. Linden, Sir Charles Hambury Williams, Sir Charles Morgan, lord vis- count Hereford, the present earl Camden, and many other persons respectable for their talents or rank-Besides the introduction of turnips into general cultiva- tion, the association have also succeeded in their recommendation of clover and potatoes; in vetches they have not been so fortunate, though the soil of the greatest part of the county seems to be peculiarly favourable to the growth of this vegeta- ble, many different kinds of which, and among them that most beautiful of the whole species, the orobus sylvaticus, may be frequently found growing wild in our woods and fields. . . - * - - It has been before observed that there is a considerable variation not only in the surface of the country, but in the nature of the strata of the hundred of Builth, from that of the vale of Usk : there is also a great difference in the course and practice of husbandry of the former district, from that which prevails in the Southern and Eastern parts of the county. As the soil of the latter is too porous to retain the necessary moisture, that of the hundred of Builth is remarkably argilla- ceous; the water therefore is prevented from sinking sufficiently deep, and is held upon the surface until it sours; * notwithstanding the mode of improving such land is obvious, draining creeps too slowly into practice there, and one fourth part of the hundred is permitted to remain in the state of wet boggy commons, called in the British rhosydd, upon which something the hay is mown at the latter end of the summer, though the English farmer will hardly recognize it by that name, when he is told, that it is so short as to be carried home in a sheet, or thrown into a basket placed on a sledge. - - - - . The farms in this part of the country are generally small, and let on leases for years, the term usually commencing on the 25th of March, although the going off tenant has the outhouses till May, to fodder his cattle and a road to water ; lands . - * * * • . . let *Mr. Clarke in his survey recommends the not been sufficiently attended to, but the lime is at mixture of lime with the soil of this district as a considerable distance and it cannot be denied likely to attract from the atmosphere the nutri- that the roads on which it must be conveyed are ment of plants and to produce that adhesion which badly laid out, and generally in a very indifferent it wants in dry weather; if his observation is cor- state of repair. . . rect, and I see no reason to dispute it, his bint has 312 HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE, let according to Mr. Clarke, from six to seven shillings per acre, and the poorest grounds from three shillings to four. - The inhabitants do not raise a sufficiency of corn for their own consumption: according to their present system of husbandry, tillage would certainly not repay them, as the general average produce of wheat per acre in the hundred (unless the vicinity of the town of Builth be included, and even then it would make no mate- rial alteration in the aggregate) is not calculated to exceed five bushels; but there is no doubt, that if the land were well manured and limed, tillage would become as profitable in the vales here, as in other parts of the county: the farmers however at present depend principally, if not entirely, upon the sale of their butter, cheese, cattle and sheep: this latter animal is a peculiar favourite, because from the conti- guity of the extensive chain of mountains, dividing Builth from the hundred of Merthyr on the South, and the hills on the borders of Cardiganshire and Radnor- shire on the North, most farmers claim, and all of them exercise an unlimited right of common upon these valuable walks, upon which the sheep are depastured with little, if any expence, during the greatest part of the year. . As we descend along the vale of Wye towards Glazbury and Hay, the soil improves materially; it loses its injurious tenacity and admits a proportion of loam and sand, though it is not so porous as that of the Usk; when we cross the Epynt and approach the banks of the latter river, a far better and more enlightened system of husbandry is discoverable; the farms are in general larger, the enclosures more regular and better preserved, in many places and particularly in the neighbourhood of Brecon, ground has been reclaimed and cultivated, which only 2. few years back was unproductive, the arable lands are well manured and limed, the pastures top- dressed and cleared of stones and rubbish, and in short, the face of the country wears an aspect very different from that of the hundred of Builth. The landed property is generally freehold throughout the country, in the vales it lets from fifteen shillings to a guinea an acre; in the neighbourhood of Glazbury and Hay some farms are let for forty shillings an acre, and in the vicinity of Brecon and other towns in this county, from three to four pounds; the takings in the vales are from fifty pounds to two hundred pounds a year, and in the high lands from ten to twenty pounds. The nature and duration of tenures vary according to the disposition of the landlords, some farms are held at will, and at rack rent; others under leases for a term certain, and some from the lord of the manor of Crickhowel, and under the Tredegar family in Ystradfellte for three lives - It has been justly observed,” that men rarely cultivate an estate well, or even to - the - * Essays in Husbandry, p. 159, - HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. 313 proverb on this occasion, the best of their capacities, unless they beinvested in some degree with the property of it, or enjoy a tenure of some duration in it. Encouragement therefore for industrious and careful tenants should be thought of by landlords; rack-renting hurts the proprietor of the land, some times immediately, and always remotely; for in such cases a shrewd farmer gets more by continually harassing the ground, than by giving it the assistances of repose and manures, he gains by desolation, and loses by improvement. In some parts of England, the inhabitants have a strange old. “He that havocks may sit, - He that improves must flit.” - , - Or in other words, the tenant who racks the land may continue in the farm until he has worn out the soil;-but he who improves the estate, must pay an advanced rent, or be obliged to quit. In Italy, when the husbandman's time of holding is almost expired, it is his custom to ruin the vineyard he rents, by-forcing the trees- to bear, till they become barren : such treatment is called by the neighbourhood Lascia podere, or adieu farm. The spur of interest is certainly necessary to excite industry: leases then of a proper length and upon a fair medium rent, render land of equal benefit to the landlord and tenant, thence arises a liberal and enterprizing spirit, which to a certainty enriches the industrious occupier and fully secures the property of the owner. - - The general terms of leases in this county are from seven and fourteen, to twenty one years current; in some instances eleven, or twenty one certain. In the hundreds of Crickhowel and Talgarth, new tenants commonly commence their term at Candlemas; the usual covenants are, the landlord puts every thing in repair at the first entry upon the farm, and makes good the ring fence; the tenant engages to keep and deliver up the premisses, and the precincts, in statu quo, at the expira- tion of his term ;—the landlord allows plough-boot, hedge-boot, and rough gaté- wood: the tenant not allowed to top or poll any maiden tree, the landlord upon tenant's first entry, allows twenty barrels of lime, (some more, some less) per customary acre for the arable; the tenant engages to lay an equal quantity within the last year of his term; no ancientley or meadow to be ploughed up without the landlord's permission; tenant to consume all the hay and straw upon the premisses; - the tenants under the duke of Beaufort have special clauses, agreeably to the cu- stom of the manor. . . The going-off tenant throughout the county retains the use of the house, barns and other offices, and in most places a piece of arable land, having water in it, for the purpose offeeding off his hay and straw, till the first of May. The meadow. ºv. s - land. - 314 - HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. land to be given up to the new tenant at Christmas, where the taking is candlemas. In case the going-off tenant has sown wheat, and timed his fallow, he is entitled to three-fourths of the ensuing crop; if he merely fallows, but lays on no lime to two thirds—If upon a clover lay to one half, and barn-room in every instance for his portion of the crop, otherwise he is at full liberty to carry it away. Wheat after turnips is deemed a fallow. - - Tenants at will, without a special agreement to the contrary, assume a right of carrying off or selling all hay, straw and manure from the premisses, and ruinous as this custom is, it has been frequently exercised and allowed, though some doubts are entertained whether it be legal.—Mr. Clarke in his agricultural report of Brecknockshire, observes, “ that the mode of culture upon the good soil of this district is conducted in such a manner, as to leave little room for improvement; but where the land is poor by nature, the tillage part of the husbandry especially, is the very worst that can possibly be imagined.” Upon the first head, we give our reporter all due credit for the civility of his observation: it must indeed be allow- ed that within the last twenty years, agricultural knowledge has been considerably advanced within the vale of Usk ; but it cannot even by vanity be supposed that we have as yet arrived at the ne plus ultra of improvement. As Pliny says, Multum adhue restat operis, multumq: restabit, nec ulli nato post mille saccula precluditur occasio, aliquid adjiciendi.” A multitude of ridiculous and idle prejudices still continue to disgrace the practice of our native farmers, which in the present generation it may be difficult to eradicate; it is not however unreasona- ble to hope that time and experience may contribute to dispell the mist, and en- lighten the minds of a better informed posterity: as to our highland farmers, they are generally too poor to attempt improvements of any consequence; to use 3. common expression, they literally “live from hand to mouth.” A few acres of oats or barley, (which with difficulty they are at any rate enabled to cultivate) with a few sheep and small cattle upon the mountains are their only stock; and yet with these, provided they are enabled to discharge their rent, they live contented. - - Carts and waggons are the common implements of conveyance of materials in the ºvale; but the uplands are accessible by the sledge only. . - The usual teams in tillage, are four or five horses, otherwise six oxen, or four oxen and a horse, “enough (to use the words of an intelligent friend) to ruin a farmer, if land were at five shillings an acre.” That curse to labouring oxen, the heavy yoke is still in common use and they are worked in pairs. • . - !. - - The HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE, 313 The country plough is a heavy, clumsy and inefficient implement, but long custom has prejudiced our husbandmen in its favor. Within the last few years, However, the short Rotherham, or as it is here called the W hitchurch plough, has been introduced, and I think it now bids fair to obtain a preference. It is, cer- tainly worked with less labour and better adapted to our light and sandy soil, some few gentlemen have adopted the whip-rein, with two horses abreast, without a driver, and with this they are enabled to plough a statute acre per day. The ad- vantages of this latter plan, are so clearly manifested by the reduction of expence, and the lessening of labour, that our farmers, I trust, will shortly See them, and we may hope in a few years to find it in universal practice. Our ploughmen are generally good; not a man of them but is perfectly master of the strait line, and every furrow runs perfectly parallel: to their credit be it spoken, a neighbouring county to the West, annually offers, or at least lately did offer, a premium of ten guineas to such of their servants in husbandry, as shall be willing to reside three years in Brecknockshire, and there learn to hold the plough. Wheat, rye, barley, Oats, vetches, turnips and potatoes, are the common arable crops of the South and South Eastern parts of the county, and they are cultivated with tolerable success. The common practice of husbandry along the vale of Usk, in the present day is this, fallow, wheat, peas or barley, oats, turnips, barley and clover, let the clover lie for two years, and wheat upon the clover lay. But the more enlightened agriculturists pursue the following routine. Fallow and sow turnips, barley and clover one year, wheat on lay, peas or oats, fallow again, and sow turnips. “In order to judge of the propriety of this excellent system, (says Mr. Clarke, *) it is requisite to bear in remembrance, that all the land here, is of a light sandy nature, and contains by far too small a proportion of clay, hence the plough can: scarcely be used too sparingly, nor the roller too much. Here are no summer fallows, to what purpose should there be any, since they are found to be not only useless, but hurtful to the soil ? The object in view, being to repell, not to admit the scorching sun-beams of summer.” Let the ground be kept thoroughly clean from weeds, and it will be amply sufficient. Premiums were at one time offered by the agricultural society, to promote the culture of potatoes upon intended wheat fallows, but owing to the lightness of the soil, it was not found to answer, and was soon abandoned: potatoes are now generally set upon parts of the turnip land, or, when made a sole crop, are succeeded by barley. • * : * ~ , " : ]. - - * * - - , “ . - s Z. . . The following are the modes of tillage.—For a fallow, turn in the soil, about March, twi-fallow in May, or early in June, lay on lime, and harrow it in, plough : - . . . " SS 2 - in * Brecknocksirire report, p. 22, 23. 346 HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE, in August, lay on muck about Michaelmas, or early in October, and sow wheat as - early as may be. In this however they are too apt to be remiss and they often trifle away their most precious season. An agricultural writer observes,” “that no people venture to sow wheat so late in the year as the English; the Spaniards, Italians and all the inhabitants along the coasts and in the isles of the Mediterranean, sow it in September and the begi nning of October; the Germans and Flemings from the end of August to the middle of October, and the French usually finish about the same time,” but many of our Welsh farmers are contented to sow any time before Christmas. For barley on a wheat stubble, they plough about Christmas, and lay in the seed in April. For oats one ploughing: for peas one ploughing, provided the land be sufficiently fine, otherwise twice. * - Sowing is generally performed in broad-cast; wheat, in the proportion of a bushel and a half, if sown early, two bushels, if sown late upon a statute acre, barley, two bushels and a half, rye, one bushel and a half, peas, one bushel and a half, oats, two bushels and a half, clover seed, if the land is meant to lay two years, or for seed, ten pounds an acre; if for one year only, eight pounds, and generally two gallons of rye-grass. - - It is universally allowed to be good husbandry to change the seed every other year; and wheat raised upon the cold clays of Hereford and Monmouthshire is esteemed to be the best for our soil; but our farmers are not sufficiently attentive to this really important point; a misguiding penury induces too many of them year - after year to resow the same seed upon the same land, rather than incur the small expence that may attend a change, and to this, in agreat measure, they may attribute the frequent deficiency and bad quality of the crops they raise; for it is well known that the very best seed will degenerate, unless the soil is changed; but there is indeed another very strong reason why we should chuse our seed from a land differing in nature from our own; which is, that we should thereby considerably check the propagation of weeds. - Weeds are always most luxuriant in that species of soil, which gives them birth, and therefore, as it has been found impracticable SO thoroughly to cleanse the grain as wholly to exclude such noxious seeds, the farmer who repeatedly sows the pro- duet of his own land, or his own immediate neighbourhood, to a certaintyperpetuates' the evil: whereas a prudent exchange with the occupier of a different soil would equally benefit both parties. An agricultural writer, from whom I take the hint, proposes the following case of illustration upon the subject. “One farmer, says he, occupies a light sandy soil, another cultivates a stiff clay; the corn sown upon the - - . - - first * Essay on husbandry. Part I. p. 192. - . * * HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. 34; first will always abound with the seeds of the corn marigold, wild camomile, and other weeds, the natives of such soil; and which, if resown upon the same, would produce them in abundance ; but, transplanted to clay, they would come to little: in the same manner the natural produce of the clay would seldom flourish upon a light sand; thus each would get rid of a multitude of weeds at a small expence; by sowing the corn raised by the other, there is no disadvantage attending the crop itself, for wheat is wheat, whether it is grown on clay or in sand, and it will thrive in either if properly dressed”. . . * The harvest generally commences in August, and ends about the middle of October; though upon high lands, and in the close vallies between the hills, owing to cold, or unfavorable seasons, they are sometimes later.—The sickle or reaping hook, is the favorite instrument of the country; though of late years, the scythe and cradle, has considerably superseded it: the operation of the latter being more powerful, and consequently requiring fewer hands in the field. One good mower with the scythe and cradle will cut at least three acres a day. Reapers are paid from One shilling to eighteen pence per acre with meat and drink, from two to three shillings when they find their own provisions; though a certain por- tion of beer or cyder is even then expected, and generally allowed:—oats and barley are commonly mowed with a scythe like hay.” , • All grain is for the most part threshed out by the bushel, and payment made in kind, in the proportion of one bushel in twenty to the thresher—with some few ,' exceptions, but in some parts of the county they are paid in specie. - - * , The average product or returns, are nearly these; wheat on the low-lands from ten to fifteen bushels per statute acre; rye from ten to fifteen ditto; barley from fifteen to twenty five ditto; pease from fifteen to twenty-five ditto; upon some particular spots we may venture to increase the average.t. Our bushel contains ten gallons. Good wheat weighs from seventy eight to eighty pounds per bushel. The red lammas seems to be the favorite wheat of the county; but the cone, and Essex duns, where tried, have been found to be at least equally productive. - The mensuration of land is very generally estimated by the cyfair, or cyfar, a portion. nearly answerable to the Roman J ugerum, and by common computation one third less than the English statute acre. In the British laws of Hywel Dda, - - . - the plus autem et expeditius ferro quodam modico, in cultellimodum formato, baculis binis ad capitalaxe et flexibiliter catenato.” . . . . . . * It appears from the account of Giraldus Cam- brensis, that neither Scythe or sickle, was in use among the antient Britons, but that they used an instrument formed like the blade of a knife, with a wooden handle, fixed loosely at each end, and with this they cut their corn, in a manner infinitely more expeditious, Falcibus quoq, minusutuntury f This is the average of the low lands. I can- not state without trembling, the average of the county, and under a hope that I am misinformed, I will omit it, 31s HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE, the Erw, is declared to have been the statute acre of the early Welsh, and is thus. singularly and whimsically defined. “The following is “ the measure of the lawful statute acre; four feet in the length of the short yoke; eight in the field yoke; twelve in the lateral yoke; sixteen in the long yoke ; and a rod equal in ſength to that in the hand of the driver, with his hand upon the middle knot of that yoke; and as far as that reached on each side of him, is the breadth of the. acre; and thirty times as much is its length. Others. say that the acre ought to be measured with a rod equal in length to the stature of the tallest man in the hamlet, with his hand stretched upwards towards heaven; and then it proceeds in- the manner above mentioned.” It is also defined in another manner thus; “six- teen + feet are the length of the yoke; sixteen yokes make the length of the acre, and two make its breadth.” Again, “thef perch of Hywel Dda, was eighteen. feet long; and eighteen such perches made the length of an acre, which was two perches wide.” In the short yoke there were two oxen abreast; in the next, four: in the next, six; and in the last, eight. Neither meadow, pasture, nor woodland. were included in the Erw, for only the arable land was measured, and that of every other description was deemed waste: indeed this also appears from our term cufur, compounded of cuſ, together, and ar, ploughing: it takes its name from an ancient custom among the Welsh, of entering into articles of partnership, - wherein each partner was obliged to bring cattle, and implements of husbandry, until, - they had finished ploughing; in these agreements a certain. acre was set aside, towards the expences of providing such implements, in the Welsh laws termed enfair-casnadd;— but neither Dr. Wotton, nor any other Welsh lexicographer- attempts to explain the meaning of the word, simply stating that it is synonymous. with Erwºr-gwydd. The latter, it is thought, implies the woody-acre, from whence the partnership was to be supplied with timber for their plough-boot. A piece of land in Llanbedr, in the hundred of Crickhowel, is to this day called Erw-y- Gwydd, May we venture to derive the word casnadd from the old Irish Edw. Llwyd in his Irish-English dictionary gives us as obsolete words, caois, a furrow, - . - (now, • Mesury, erw gyfieſthiawl, pedair troedſeda Hall. (Cyßeithiau. Hywel Dda ac erall, lib. 2. yn hyd y fer-lau, wyth yn y fai-iau, deuddegyn cap. 12, sect. 3.) vide etiam. lib. III. cap. ix. y gesselliau, un ar bymtheg ynyr hir-iau a gwialen sect. 3. *- . . . . .” gyhyd a hono yn law y geilwad, a'r law arall t Un droedfedd arbymthega ſydd yr hydyr iddaw ar yr ysgwr perfedd, a hyd, a cyrheuddo hir-iau ac uniau ar bymthega wnant hydyr erw, . honno o bobtu iddaw yw lied yr erw, a deg a'r a dwy fydd ei led. (Lib. 2. c. 19. S. 5.) . . . . hugaintyweihyd, eraill a ddywaid maigwialen f Deunaw troedfedd a fydd yn hyd gwialen. gyhyd a'r gwrhwyaf yn y dref, ai Ilaw uwch ei Hywel Dda, a deunaw lathen, i honno, a fydd. ben, ac yn unrhyw gerdded at honno ag ary yn hydyr erw, Á dwy lathen yn éilled. Ibid. HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. 313 (now written cºys in Welsh) and naidhm, a bargain or covenant.” There was also another acre set aside, as a remuneration to any such partner, as might have the misfortune of losing one of his oxen in ploughing, upon his oath that such ac- cident had not happened through his own fault or negligence. This was called, Erw’rych du, or the acre of the black, i. e. dead ox. Whence perhaps the old proverb, “the black ox has never trodden on his foot”—applied to a person who has never suffered misfortune. The word Erw, in Breconshire, always signifies - the English statute acre. I am informed that in Monmouthshire, and some parts of Glamorganshire, they estimate four cufurs to the Erw. In some part of Wales the term cyfar is still used to signify as much ground as one plough can work in a day: but here it is not restricted to any one species of land. Mr. Wm. Williams, a land surveyor of Cwmdu, computes the Brecknockshire cyfar at one acre, two - roods and twenty eight poles; but the computation differs in different parts of the county. In the foregoing observations the English statute acre is ad- hered to. . . . - The cattle and horses of the country are generally small; both breeds however have been considerably improved within these few years by crosses from other coun- ties, the former principally from Glamorganshire and Herefordshire, of which the latter is now the favourite, and by the report of Mr. Marshal, deservedly so: that experienced agriculturist observes, that the Herefordshire breed, taking it all in all, may be deemed the first breed of cattle in the island; their frame is altogether athletic, and their limbs in most cases sufficiently clean ; for the purposes of travelling, the form of many of them as beasts of draught is nearly complete. . . . * With respect to horses, the agricultural society has from time to time exerted itself and still continues to attend to the breed within the county, by offering premiums for the introduction of good stallions, both of the hunting and draught kinds ; in the latter case, giving a preference to the Suffolk Punch breed, as being best calculated for work in a mountainous country. The Punch is a well knit horse, short backed and thick shouldered, with abroad neck and well lined with flesh; it is a satisfaction to observe, that our farming teams have been greatly improved by these encourage- ments, and our yeomen begin to feel a laudable pride in the goodness of their cattle. : . . . . t - The extensive mountains which form so considerable a portion of the whole eounty are covered with innumerable flocks of sheep. The habits and manners ef these animals and their keepers are little known to the world at large and much . . less * I borrow this derivation and conjecture, as indeed I have several others, from an ingenious correspondent and friend, - • , - - - 320. HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE, - * less to the learned part of the community. After long hesitation and frequent doubts, courts of justice have at last agreed, though apparently against their con- viction to admit, that those who have been accustomed to the care of sheep car identify their countenances and describe with precision their general shape and make, but it is clear that though juries give implicit credit to this kind of evidence, many gentlemen of the long robe entertain strong suspicions, either that these witnesses are too bold in their assertions or else that there must be some mystery in this knowledge, which neither learning or great reading can fathom: when the difference between one sheep and another in a flock is pointed out to them, it is acknowledged for a moment, but say these learned sceptics, “if the same animals be shewn us a second time at the interval of an hour or two, we cannot recog- nize those features with which we believed we had formed an acquaintance:” - the same consequences would follow if an equal number of men were assembled, we’ll suppose at a fair or market and they would be much more certain, if as many soldiers or persons in the same dress were drawn up in a line; if any two or three were pointed out at random who had no strikin g or uncommon peculiarity of features and the beholder could be spun round like a top, it is ten to one that - when the rotatory motion ceased, he would not be able to identify them a second time; but that there is as great variety in feature, in shape and in make, as well as in disposition, in the brute creation, as there is in the human form and mind will be as clear and as evident on minute investigation as any problem in geometry. The shepherd who has been accustomed to follow his flock, to watch them late and early and to study their habits and manners, preserves the perfect recollection of them, without scientific or systematic order it is true, but with unerring accuracy; he is competent not only to mark their physiognomy, but to discriminate their voices and even to develope their characters; he describes one as active, another as slothful, a third as thievish, another honest, one is domestic, another given to . straying : may though their disposition be in generał gregarious, Some are more so- eiable than others; some are frequently seen grazing at a distance though in sight of the flock, as if courting the protection of their neighbours in the hour of danger; though shy of their company in their general demeanour and habits. -If there can be a doubt of the intimate knowledge which this class of men possess upon the subject, let an experiment be made from which no skilful shepherd will ever flinch. Let a flock be driven from the mountains or their pastures, with their lambs; let them be divided, the dams placed in one fold and the young in ano- ther, out of sight and hearing of each other, and then let the shepherd for the first time be introduced, and he will instantly select the dam and her. & youn §. HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. 39 jº young one, or vice versa, and bring them together, without erring once in a hundred times.” * : - - Nor are these animals themselves without talents or without peculiarities; their general characteristic is an amiable mildness, which submits without complaint to every injury they may sustain from either man or the brute creation. When they are accompanied by their young they appear to assume a courage, which is almost ludicrous, when we know how short lived it is likely to be. The dam (placing her offspring in the rear) turns round, looks at the barking cur, stamps with her foot as if challenging an attack and provoking the affray, nay even the whole flock form something like martial array, and put on “a swaggering outside,” but the moment the enemy charges, they disperse in all directions, seek their safety in flight, and become the same defenceless creatures as they are during the greatest part of their lives. Their dispositions however vary in different parts of the kingdom.—In England they are docile and domestic, they may there be confined by enclosures, and are patient of controul, they are driven into their nightly folds without difficul- ty, and collected without labour by the shepherd, while ours in Wales resemble their aboriginal masters, in manners and their mode of life. While they are de- pastured in fields and low lands, and boundaries prescribed to them, they have a mischievous activity which baffles human ingenuity to correct. Place them on a mountain where they are apparently free and may roam whither they please, and they stick to a favourite spot, as if they were surrounded by a wall. Here again the lawyer stumbles when he hears that a sheep is stolen from a hill: he cannot be persuaded to believe that they can be localized in such a wild and open country; but the fact is, that after they have been accustomed to graze upon a particular part of a mountain, if they are not disturbed when at rest at nights, they are pri- soners by choice, and cannot be removed from thence without difficulty. This is perfectly well understood by proprietors of sheep in this country, who sometimes avail themselves of their knowledge in a very artful manner; when there is a right of intercommoning, which is frequently the case here, the shepherd who wishes to prevent a new flock from depasturing on the same bank or hill with those called the old settlers, comes at the dusk or in the middle of the night, rat- tles some stones which he carries in his pocket, throws up his hat, or takes up clods and throws them about him in all directions; this, one would suppose, dis. turbs his own sheep as well as his neighbour's; it is indeed particularly disagree- able and unpleasant to both, but the new settlers not being so much accustomed . . - - - and * The most skilful physiognomist will hesitate before he tries the same experiment with mankind. T t 333 . HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. t and of course not so attached to the spot, give up the walk and leave it in the sole possession of the old occupiers. .” . There are also some other traits in their character deserving of notice, and therefore proper to be stated before I have done with them. When they are first driven to the hills from the low grounds, the old sheep, with that affection (which is however not peculiar to this animal) mount to the highest eminence and leave or rather confine the yearlings and youngest to the lowest part of the hill, shewing them by their conduct, perhaps informing them in their language, that they are not so capable of enduring cold as those who have been accustomed to a more leak and elevated situation; it is very certain also that providence has implanted in them for the preservation of their species a presentiment of the approach of hard weather, particularly of snow, (sometimes so fatal to them) a day or two before it falls they are observed to avoid the ditches and other situations where drifts are likely to be formed, and sometimes (though seldom) they have been known to quit the hills entirely, to overleap all enclosures and to come down into the vales a day before a storm commenced.—There is also a peculiarity (as it is said) in -the sheep bred in Glamorganshire, when sold and delivered into Breconshire which is very remarkable; but incredible as it appears, it is attested by the uni- versal voice of those who are conversant in this species of traffick; they assert po- sitively that if a lot of sheep be brought from the former county into the latter, the purchaser is obliged to watch them for a considerable time more narrowly and with greater care than the other part of his flocks; they say that when the wind is from the South they smellit, and as if recognising their native air, they instantly meditate an escape; it is certain (what ever may be the cause) that they may be descried some- times standing upon the highest eminence, turning up their noses and apparently snuffing up the gale; here they remain as it were ruminating for some time, and then if no impediment occurs they scour with impetuosity along the waste, and never stop until they reach their former homes; perhaps when we recollect the numerous instances that have been related of dogs, horses and other animals, returning from immense distances to their accustomed habitations and native plains, this may not appear altogether so marvellous. - It is hardly necessary to add that the Welsh sheep are considerably smaller than those of their species in England, and therefore it is said less profitable ; without wishing to preclude experiments for the improvement of the breed, I trust I may be permitted to hesitate before I admit it to be a point established beyond controversy. The English sheep are certainly heavier, and therefore produce a greater price in the market, but it must be recollected that ours live upon much - poorer HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. sas ** poorer lands than the former, and indeed that they feed a great part of the year on the summits of the hills, where few other animals could be placed, and which would otherwise produce no profit to the community; when these advantages are considered we must not too hastily decide upon the question. Certain it is, that if our diminutive breed were lost, the epicure would lament, even though the farmer might rejoice. - - • ‘ The common manures of the county, are lime, yard-muck, the produce of the farm, compost of line with the scourings of headlands, and ditches, and coal- ashes, the last generally used for grass lands, upon which it produces the meillio- nen or white clover in abundance. Fern or straw is likewise thrown in the hollow wet parts of bye roads, to rot during the winter, but this, as it is an abuse injurious to the public, ought not to be allowed. - There is certainly no part of husbandry in which our farmers are more unpar- donably negligent, than in the management of their muck yard—most inconside- rately do they suffer those valuable juices to run in waste along the roads to the annoyance of the traveller, which more attentive husbandmen, would carefully preserve for the enriching of their lands. The farmer's best friend is undoubtedly his dunghill, but alas! how often does he ungratefully neglect it ! “sterquilinium magnum stude ut habeas” ” was the Roman maxim. Be careful to have a large dunghill, said Cato to his bailiff. Mix well your dung with earth, whilst the wind is West, and the weather dry, says Pliny.” And Columella f is particular in his instructions as to the formation of his dung heap. “There ought says he, to be two places for dung; one for receiving the new dung from the offices, which is preserved in it for a year; and another for keeping the old dung, which from thence is to be carried into the fields—both of them like fish ponds, should be hollowed with a gentle declivity, and paved in the bottom, to prevent the moisture from getting away; for it is of great importance to preserve the sap, that, so the dung may preserve its strength, and be putrefied by continual moisture, so that if any seeds of briars, or grass, be thrown into the dunghill, along with the straw, they may be destroyed; skilful husbandmen therefore quickly carry off whatever dung is turned out of the sheep-cots and stables, cover it with hurdles made of twigs, and neither allow it to be dried by the winds nor withered by the rays of the sun,” From these, and many other notices of the ancient agriculturists, (however modern practice may differ in some particulars) much useful information may be gleaned; and our countrymen surely need not be ashamed to receive instruction from the most polished people of their time, and the once great rulers of the known world. - - - - - * . Tt 2. . . . . Our * Pliny’s Natural History, c. v. t Do.lib. 17, cap. 9. § Lib. 1. cap. vi. - 324 HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. Our British farmer forms one common heap of all the produce of his yard;—and if he keeps it tolerably together, supposes that nothing more is necessary: there it lies exposed to wind and sun, till the owner is at leisure to carry it to the field, and then both new and old are indiscriminately used toge ther; or if any lies over to another season, it is most probably that which ought to have been used first. The Roman, with greater judgment, formed his dunghillinto two parts, providing that one should be rotted to its proper state of putrefaction, whilst the other was accumulating to its intended quantity; and was always particularly careful to preserve it from evaporation. - - . - The only objection to the Roman plan, is the formation of their dunghill in a bason or hollow, professedly without a drain, as in very wet seasons too great a * redundance or superfluity of moisture must tend to chill or stop the necessary fermentation; at least it is probable that such must be the consequence in this our climate; bu t perhaps in an Italian atmosphere the case may differ. & The following plan was communicated to a friend of mine. by a gentleman in Som ersetshire. He forms his dunghill upon, a small descent, havi ng the bottom well clayed; in the front is a low wall to keep it meat, through the bottom of which are small passages into a reservoir formed on the outside for the reception of such water as might drain off: at convenient opportunities, when the surface becomes dry and crumbling, this liquor is returned back again by a labourer with a scoop, and serves to keep it always in a proper temperament. At other times, as the drainage must occasionally be considerable, he employs it in watering his garden, - or by means of a water carriage, similar to those used upon the London roads, distributes it upon his meadow land, still reserving the grosser Substance for his arable. . . . . . . - In forming this heap, all the refuse of his garden, fern and other weeds cut green around the hedge-rows, scourings of the yard and ditches, urine, Soap lees, dead animals, and whatever else can be converted into manure, are regularly carried out into the yard, and placed in layers upon the dunghill, so that the next cleaning of the stables and cow-house may be fairly spread over it: at convenient.times the whole is thoroughly well mixed together with a fork ; by which means the whole . mass becomes equally fermented and fit for use. By such good management, and an uniform observance of his system, he is always enabled upon a very small farm to make a considerable quantity of most excellent compost. According to Mr. Marshall's plan, dunghills should be made not less than four- teen or more than eighteen feet wide, as this size will admit of two men behind, and one at each side. If, says he, it be narrower, the men at the wheels have not k History of BRECKNOCKSHIRE, 323 not sufficient employment, if wider they have too much; nor can they reach the cart without moving their feet; making a step takes as much time as throwing in a shovel-full of compost.—The sides of a dunghill should not be upright, nor too high, that the men may stand on the steps to fill; perhaps one rod wide and a quarter of a rod high, when settled, is the best form of a dunghill. Lime, as an acknowledged native of the country, easy of access, and cheap of purchase, is the general favorite manure with the greatest part of the farmers in Breconshire and is commonly laid on in the proportion of thirty barrels to the statute acre: each barrel containing three customary bushels, or thirty gallons,— some lay on more, some less. As Dr. Anderson observes, “there are but few. particulars in which practical farmers are more divided, than about the quantity of lime that may be laid on an acre of land with profit, or even with safety: some require that it should be applied in such small quantities as thirty or forty bushels to the acre; and aver that if more is used, the ground will be absolutely ruined; whilst others maintain that ten times that quantity may be applied not only with safety, but with singular advantage”: the doctor himself is decidedly of the latter opinion,-telling us that “he has had the experience of lime in all proportions, from one hundred to more than seven hundred bushels to the acre, upon a great variety of soils, and always found that its effects in promoting the fertility of the soil, have been in proportion to the quantity laid on, other circumstances being alike.” The expence, continues he, in most cases prevents farmers from employing this manure in greater quantities than those above mentioned; but accidental circumstances clearly shew, that if it was applied in larger quantities, the effect would only be to promote the luxuriance of the crop to a higher degree.” º - Now all this appears to be absolutely impossible; but perhaps the doctor may reply with old Alice in the play, t “I never said it was possible;—I only said it was true,” and if so, I suppose we must believe him. Dr. Hunter however, with more apparent reason thinks it very possible that a large quantity of lime upon a sandy soil may prove injurious, unless supported by manures of a more en- riching nature. - - - $ : “It is a received opinion, says he, that lime enriches the land it is laid on, by means of supplying a salt, fit for the nourishment of plants; but by all experi- ments that have been made on lime, it is found to contain no sort of salt; its operation therefore should be considered in a different light. By the fermentation it induces, the earth is opened and divided; and by its absorbent and alkaline . quality * Essays on Agriculture, vol. 1, p. 192, f Castle Spectre, act 2, scene 2. - : Dr. A. Hunter' note on Evelyn's Sylva, vol. 1, p. 30. 525 HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE, quality, it unites the oily and watery parts of the soil. It also seems to have the property of collecting the acid of the air, which it readily forms into a neutral salt of great use in vegetation. From reviewing lime in this light, is is probable that it tends to rob the soil of its oily particles; and in time will render it barren, unless we take due care to support it with rotten dung, or other manures of an oily nature; as light sandy soils contain but a small portion of oleaginous particles, we should be cautious how we overdo them with lime, unless we at the same time assist them with rotten dung, woollen rags, shavings of horn, or manures of an ani- mal kind. Its great excellency however upon a sandy soil is by mechanically binding the loose particles, and thereby preventing the liquid part of the manure from escaping out of the reach of the radical fibres of the plants.” . Without at- tempting to controvert or explain, to prove or disprove the truths of either of these opinions, it will be sufficient for me to say with the economist of Yorkshire, that I am not acquainted with any country in which lime is held in such high repute, nor where the manufacturing of it, is so common a practice among farmers, as in this, - *- Clover, rye-grass and trefoil are the only artificial grasses in common culti- wation; some few farmers have I believe attempted the growth of saintfoim ; but as their attempts were languid, we need not wonder they were unsuccessful; with proper management and attention it would doubtless prove a valuable acquisition. Jethro Tuli tells us, that its increase in poor land, is in a ratio of forty degrees greater than that of common grass, Vetches are sometimes, though (as before observed) not frequently and generally sown for the spring feeding of cattle. Perhaps, to use old Hartlib's words, “we are to blame that we have neglected lucerne;” that valuable plant so highly celebrated by ancient as well as modern writers, If we may believe Columella and Palladius,” “The herb medica is most excellent; because one sowing lasts ten years, and affords commonly four, sometimes six cuttings in the season—because it enriches the land that produces it; fattens lean cattle, and affords a remedy to such as are sick, and because one jugerum of it completely feeds three horses for a whole year.” • * The modern writer of “Experiments on transplanted lucerne” makes one re- mark, which, if correct, is worthy of our attention. “I know, says he, from my own experience, that sheep will eat lucerne, green when they refuse every sort of food besides, nor ean there be a better preservative, when the rot begins to threaten, than to give them green fucerne, mixed with a little bog-bean: or lucerne hay moistened with fresh brine.” He then adds in a note, “the - - marsh * Columella, tib, I I, c. 11, Pallad, 1, 3, tit, 1s HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE, 327 marsh trefoil commonly called buck-bean, is a plant of an unsavory taste, and sheep when sound commonly avoid eating it, but when symptoms of the rot begin to attack them, they search for it by instinct, and devour it greedily. Where such sheep are depastured, no buck-bean is to be found, for in a week or two they devour it all.—Might it not be prudent therefore in our husbandmen, who keep large flocks, to cultivate an acre of the plants in morassy grounds, which otherwise would not yield them two shillings an acre? Some might be cut green for unsound sheep, and given them with lucerne, as occasion might re- quire; and some might be made into hay and mixed with their fodder.—I cannot remember that this advice has been given by any husbandry writer.” In our Welsh botanologies, this plant is called meillionen y gors, or the marsh trefoil, but is better known to our mountaineers by the name of flá ºr waun, i. e. bog-bean, and is found in great abundance upon a quaking bog, at Rhos-y-mwyn, upon the mountains of Llangattock and Llangynidr, upon mymidd Illtid, in Llan- gorse lake, and many of the rhosydd in this county. It is a fine generous bitter, wonderfully strengthening to the human stomach, and assisting a decayed digestion and from these well known qualities, it is probable that our author’s observation upon sheep is perfectly just, ifso, the discovery is a very usefulone. In the manage- ment of the meadow land, (notwithstanding the encomium of Mr. Clarke, that “ the benefit of flooding is no where better understood, nor the operation more judiciously performed, than in some parts of this county”) there is nothing very praiseworthy.—Irrigation is a system that has certainly been long known and practised in the county, and every farmer is satisfied as to the advantages to be derived from water ; but I fear that our reporter has given them too much credit for their care and skill in managing it to the best advantage. In fact, an incorrigi- ble indolence too generally prevails, and to this unfortunate disposition they often sacrifice their dearest interests. They are neither sufficiently attentive to the formation or disposition of their trenches, or the proper seasons for irrigation: hence we have often reason to lament the wetness of the roads, while the adjoin- ing meadows are parched with thirst. There are also some other important errors to be corrected, Too generally the hay crops are ruined by the mischievous, but prevailing practice of late grazing with sheep, which are sometimes suffered to remain on the land until the latter end of April or beginning of May : the con- sequence of this is, that in hot dry summers a fatal deficiency must ensue, and should a severe winter unfortunately follow, the owner is obliged to purchase hay for his spring consumption, under all the disadvantages of dear markets. The introduction of green crops for the spring-feeding of sheep can alone remedy this * . . . . defect, 328 HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE, defect, but this is an improvement at which we have not yet arrived. Another almost universal fault which may be observed, is, the suffering grass to stand too long before - it is mowed; a generally prevalent but erroneous idea has immemorially influenced . our farmers to a belief that by cutting hay before it is (as they call it) sufficiently hard, they lose in quantity, and therefore they leave it standing till the stools are become absolutely foxy and the stocks are dwindled into mere bents, sans taste, sans smell, sans everything. In fact, by this means the first crop is lost, and they are now cutting what ought to be their lattermath. Avarice is here their principal motive. It will hardly be controverted that the leaves of grass are equally essential to good hay with the stalks, they indeed form the most nutritious part of it; let us - watch their progress and we see them grow together, daily gaining in strength and increasing in quantity until the stalks arrive at full maturity and put forth their blossoms; the plant is now in high perfection and ready for the scythe, but this once past, the leaf decays, the stalk hardens and every symptom of old age increases: in such a stage what nutriment can it afford to cattle? Little, if any, and clean straw is nearly as beneficial. . . . - - . a The common price of mowing hay is from two shillings to two shillings and six-pence per statute acre, with a limited quantity of ale or cyder; in some places a gallon to the acre, in others less. Most of the farmers, however, pay by the day, viz. a shilling, and find the mower both in meat and drink —female haymakers receive from six-pence to nine-pence a day, and usually stipulate for an allowance. of drink, Hay, from the great demand for it, has for several years been estimated very hi ghly, having been seldom under three, and sometimes amounting to five,and even seven pounds per ton. But in future it will probably decline in value; various circumstances having combined to depress those markets by which the trade was principally supported: rail-ways and canals are daily subvertin g the business of º the carriers. And agricultural improvements in the region of the mountains have enabled the gentlemen in the iron-trade in some measure to supply themselves, without depending as heretofore upon the produce of the vales. - . . The wages of farming servants have increased very greatly within the last ten years—mining, collieries, lime kilns, iron works, canals and railroads, whereby the labourer is enabled to earn his half crown or three shillings a day, have thrown the husbandman very far into the back ground; and it is often with difficulty that he can find a sufficient number of hands to cut and house his crops: certain it is that his expences are nearly doubled within that period, : - - . - - . . . - Th #º º: ...” . HISTORY OF BRECKN OCKSHIRE, - - 329. The head bailiff or upper servant in particular has an extraordinary advance of wages, for which it is difficult to account; the exertions of this class are neither greater, nor their services more valuable now, than at any former period. The dearness of provisions cannot be urged as an argument in their favour, for the whole expence of maintenance is born by the employer. Clothes we must indeed allow to be extra, which are rendered dearer by the times, and consequently bear heavily upon the servant, but (these once laid in, in tolerable stock,) two thirds of lower wages would be clear gain. Far different from theirs is the situation of the day-labourer, upon whose single exertions not merely himself as an individual, but perhaps a wife, and a numerous family of children depend for bread. To such a man, an occasional increase of wages, is undoubtedly both just and necessary. The price of labour ought surely to bear some proportion to existing circumstances and the increased prices of the necessaries of life; or the farmer should supply his labourers with grain, on such terms, as may enable them to subsist upon their present hire, and in this, I believe all thinking men agree—the great difficulty is to arrange such a plan, as may assume a practicable shape. Humanity and a kind anxiety to relieve the distresses of the poor, and particularly those of the in- dustrious labourer and manufacturer, have ever been distinguishing characteristics of the British nation, and never were they more brilliantly exerted, than during the universally distressing scarcities of 1795, 1800, and 1801. Numerous sub- scriptions were every where proposed, and liberally supported throughout the island, whilst the press daily teemed with well meant projects to obviate for the future the alarming evil, among others, the ingenious Dr. Withering of Birmingham directed his attention to the relief of that particular class, which is the object of the present consideration: his observations are certainly replete with sentiments that do honour to his heart; but how far his scheme may be effectually practicable, it will be necessary to examine. “The wages of the day labourer, says he, are certainly very inadequate to the price of provisions, and hence arises in a great measure, the enormous increase of the poor rates. I confine my observations on this subject to country parishes; a man, his wife and five children, living chiefly Oſl bread, as these people do, will consume one bushel of wheat per week. The man gains from six to nine shillings a week, and his bread costs him eight shillings or more when such is the price of wheat. I know the necessity of working people, whose nourishment depends upon bread, having the best kind of bread, such as affords the most nutrition. Nothing is got by the higher wages he may sometimes earn at piece work, the man soon wears himself out by extra exertions, and his - - family *. t.” - - - - {.. tº 350 HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. * ...~ : * . * A v. c. , , , ** { t - as ºn 3, 1. T}. * * ~ * “f 1 w ... -- ~ zº *A yº to ; : & family lose their support the sooner. A day-labourer at fifty, begins to be an old man; no other proof is wanting of his being overworked on well considering the subject, perhaps you may think with me, that a labourer should earn weekly to J 3. P Đº j y 9 * - - j † the amount of a bushel and a half of wheat, and that the magistrates should at every quarter sessions, fix the lowest rate of day labour for the three succeeding months, in the proportion I have stated, to the then price of wheat. Whenever the gentlemen employed by the board of agriculture, turn their attention to that point, it will through that channel soon find its way to the legislature.” Mr. Pitt, from whose Staffordshire report, the quotation is borrowed, after giving the worthy doctor every credit for the goodness of his intentions, takes occasion to remark “ that the present high price of wheat, (i. e. in 1795) being, it is hoped, only temporary, and occasioned by unproductive seasons, combined with other local causes, an advance of wages in the above proportion would emanci- pate the labourer from feeling those effects which every one ought to bear his Secondly, such a mandate of a court, would have a tendency to throw many labourers out of employ; as many of their employers would not care, and share of. perhaps could not afford to submit to it, but would make a shift with fewer hands. The grand remedy, (continues he) is a general inclosure, and bringing the millions of dormant acres of unproductive, though naturally fertile iand, into cultivation, which united with the perfection to which our present practice of husbandry is making a gradual-progress would produce plenty for a population much exceed- ing that which is at present contained in the island.” I must agree with Mr. Pitt, that our philanthropist, in his earnest zeal to serve the labourer, appears rather to bave overstepped the line, and forgotten that attention which is equally, due to the circumstances and situation of his employer. The industrious servant is un- doubtedly a deserving object; but the industrious farmer is no less entitled to our consideration, and it is only reasonable to enquire how far he may be able to bear the burden proposed to be laid upon him. It has (I know) been often invidiously . suggested, “that advanced markets must necessarily make heavy purses,” and —they are unjust, for generally speaking, they are not true, at the “ that farmers fatten upon the miseries of the poor,” but such insinuations are not l - - - - cruel only, same time that they tend only to hold up an industrious and valuable class of men. as objects of groundless jealously and distrust, who are much rather deserving of thanks and encouragement from the country, - . High prices are by no means that fixed criterion of extended profit, some inge- - nious gentlemen are willing to suppose: indeed, (with the exception of certain rich monopolists,) it is in most cases, decidedly the reverse. How often have we seen f HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. 33% seen, that blighting winds, or unfavourable harvests have suddenly destroyed the fairests prospects of the husbandman? - < .” When half an acre’s corn is half a sheaf l’” So circumstanced, can it be expected that the poor disappointed man can afford to sell the produce of that scanty crop at the same low rate as if corn were plentiful? Neither reason or justice can suppose it possible —nor will any adventitious rise of the market, however great, wholly make good the loss sustained in quantity. In fact, the farmer has never so good areason to be satisfied as when corn is plentiful, and consequently cheap. I speak not of him whom superior wealth has enabled to add house to house, and land to land, whose single farm shall occupy a district; but of the middling and lower classes from 160/. a year rent downwards, for such are those who constitute the bulk of agricultural economists. As to the little fºrmers, I will venture to assert that in no instance, is the pressure of scarcity more severely felt than in theirs; and more particularly so in a country like this, where rents are frequently high, and the land naturally light. Unable from poverty and the smallness of their farms, (even in the most plentiful year) to lay by a store, they 2}'e inevitably dependent upon the present season for their whole support, and one bad harvest considerably distresses them. Scarcely have they housed their grain, and rested a little from the labours of the field, when they are obliged to thresh it out, and sell it at the lowest current price of the year, to satisfy their landlords; and when summer arrives, they are compelled to purchase for the maintenance of their families at the dearest rate of an advanced market. The years 1795, 1800 and 1801, have been already noticed as seasons of unusual scarcity: during the summer, (1801) wheat was sold in the Brecknock and Abergavenny markets at the enormous price of thirty shillings for the bushel, and other grain proportionably dear. The majority of our farmers, so far from having corn to sell—to use a figurative expression, were compelled “to go down to Egypt to buy corn, that they might live and not die.” “They sold their cattle in exchange for bread, and scarcely ought was left but their bodies and their lands.” Let us suppose that Dr. Withering's plan had been now adopted, and that at the summer sessions at Brecknock, an order had been issued by the magistrates that every labourer should receive forty five shillings a week, as the minimum of his hire for the next three months—what would have been the consequence already broken down by a multiplicity of out- goings, viz, house expences, far exceeding his calculation, high rents now immedi- - * t - ately * To this there were some exceptions in the call them exceptions, for I have admitted the pos- hundred of Talgarth, where the farms were exten- sibility of the evil under certain circumstances. sive and the occupiers rich. Indeed I can hardly - --~ /~ 332 HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. ately demandable, tythes, taxes, accumulated beyond all former precedent, besides. a variety of other incidental charges, the farmer must have been irrecoverably crushed, and rendered wholly incapable of carrying on his business. A large pro- portion of land must necessarily have remained unsown; and the public again been. doomed to suffer the horrors of a famine. - - But let us now put another case,_let us suppose the situation of the farmer not only to be widely different from that which has just now been repeated, but that fully convinced of the reasonableness of the order, he cheerfully submitted to the advance of wages: would the labourer upon any sudden fall in the price of grain, as readily consent to the reduction of his hire, in a proportionate degree, conformably to any subsequent arrangement of the magistrates? From a thorough knowledge of the people, I do not hesitate to answer, no.—He would curse the tyranny of his. superiors; he would quit the country, and leave his helpless family a burden to the parish, rather than strike one single ströke in obedience to such an injunction, Thus would that very law, which benevolence intended to relieve and better the . condition of the poor, be productive of a diametrically opposite effect, and prove an: eternal source of discord and dissatisfaction. - - - In a word, it will be always safest to leave labour to itself, and in every situation. it will find its level; that is, it will peaceably submit to such prices as plen ty or scarcity, shall naturally impose: but legislative interference will ever be found to be not only impolitic, but inefficient. The exertion of authority serves. only to create disgust, and by cramping industry, increases, rather than mitigates the evil. -- . Having thus briefly, perhaps superficially, treated upon a subject, of which I do, not profess to have an intimate knowledge, I take my leave for the present; if any thing Ihave suggested shall be productive of benefit to one deserving person, or my lucubrations shall afford amusement and satisfaction to the public, my ends are obtained, and though I am neither too proud or too rich to accept of a recompence. for my labour, if they think I deserve it; yet the utmost extent of my ambition is, that I may live a few years in the recollection and approbation of my countrymen, after Providence shall have consigned me to the long silence of the grave, .4 PPE. VDIX. tº ºtiº tº-º- No. I. State of the Population of the County of Brecon in 1673, as appears from a Return made by the Churchwardens to a Commission issued by the Archbishop of Canter- bury in that Year. -º-º- --- a- - Parishes. . Number. | Papists. Dismº. Remarks. Brecon- - - - - - - 449 35 13 Llanhamlach - - - - - 180 O O Llanddew - - - - - - | 33 O l Garthbrengy - - - - - 46 O 4 - || Ystradfellte - - - - - 200 Q. O Trallong - - - - - - 190 2 O Llywel - - - - - - || 550 1 () Devynock - - - - - - 680. 13 O Aberyscir - - - - - - 96 9. 0 Llyswen - - - - - - - 67. O 3 Llangeney - - - - - 358. 6 9 | Crickhowel - - - - - 230 2 0. }** in this: Llanvillo - - - - - - 232 || 0 9 Llanbedr - - - - - - 118 6 9 | Partricio - - - - - - - 21 - Llandilo'r fån - - - . • H 408 ! . }; ; #: Llanvihangel nant bran - 296 Q. o pººr Llangattock - - - - - 136 3 49 Carry over 4,231 75` 76 Llanelly 334 APPENDIX. Parishes. Number. Papists. Dissenters. Remarks. Brought over - 4,231 . 79 76 Llanelly - - - - - - 86 3 50 Llanfigan - - - - - - 954 () 75 Battle - - - - - - - 90 9 0 Llandevailog - - - - - | 199 2 O Merthyr - - - - - - 790 0 7 Llanganten - - - - - } 34. O 4. Llanafanfawr - - - - - 961 O 40 Maesmynis - - - - - 190 0 0. Llangammarch - - - - - 606 O #2 Builth and Llandewi'r cwm # 347 2 2 Builth, amarket town. Bronllys - - - - - - 102 2 5 Llanvrynach - - - - - 300 4. 3 Cantreff - - - - - - 190 0 7. Llanwrthwl - - - - - 199 o 6 St. David's - - - - - 3.25 2 9 Llanywern we tº se tº sº. 79 () 6 Llanvihangel tal y llyn - - 103 19 O Cwmdu - - - - - - 400 2 12 Llandevalle - - - - - 140 O 13 Crickadarn - - - - - 124. 0 O Llansaintfread - - - - 200 o o \ Llanspyddid - - - - - 900 - 13 I Ystradgynlais - - - - - 143 () O Llangasty tal y llyn - - - 86 (j 4. Cathedine - - - - - - 200 O i |A very smail parish. Llangorse - - - - - - I 32 O 33. Talgarth - - - - - - 440 {) 80 Penderin - - - - - - I 12 O 19 C arry over TTI, Is? | 130 450 Talachddú APPENDIX. - 333 \ -º- + -- ºr--- ºr -- * -F *** r- º cº-º-º-º: * ~ : sº-cºres exe- ***** *: Parishes. - Number, Papists. Dissenters. Remarks. Brought over - || 11,187 || 130 450 Talachddu - - - - - 20 I 4. Llanddetty - - - - - 473 O 54. Llangynidr - - - - - 4.33 99 42 . . - h “iſ ºr N t - ... ( Y. A market town in this Hay * . º. * tº: gº rº º | 16 O f() Parish. 3. Llanigon - - - - - - 330 9 8 Gwenddwr - - - - - 324, I 4. Llangynog - - - - - - 51 () O Llanymis - - - - - - | 80 O O Waynor- - - ‘- - - - 997 O 1 10. Total - T5.3Ti 156 ſ 682 -: - *— —a- *— - tº ºr - - -w wº-a-... ºr E- ºr-- -> In this return, Llanlleonvel, Tyr-yr-abad and that part of Glazbury which is in Breconshire, are omitted, as are Llanwrtid, Alltmawr, Llanvihangel and Llandewi Aberguessin; but these four latter parishes I am inclined to think are included in the mother churches, therefore taking the parishes omitted at a guess, the popu- Jātion will stand thus. * - - Total, as above................ ... tº sº ºf Ry ºf Es tº G. as a nº tº 13,311 Glazbury, Breconshire ............ -------- 150 Llanlleonve! ------------------------------- 90 Tyr-yr-abad-------------------------------- 15 Total of population in 1673, 13,496 335 * APPENDrx. No. II. Return of the Baptisms and Burials in the County of Brecon for Ten Years, takes º e © :- z A from the Transcripts of the Register Books, at Easter Yearly. “ Total of Total of Amount of Total of Totals; : - Males born Females both. Males Females - t born buried. buried. Amount of both. Increase. . *Tw | 1799 || 406 || 365 | 771 || 310 || 348 658 || 113 1793 || 377 322 699 || 251 242 493 || 206 1794 || 401 || 361 762 || 243 242 485 || 277 - | - 1795 || 405 || 336 || 741 || 262 270 532 || 209 1796 || 421 332 753 343 308 651 109 1797 || 398 || 378 || 776 || 270 993 || 563 || 213 1798 || 394 | 372 | 766 || 247 248 495 || 971 1799 || 393 || 347 || 740 || 319 261 580 || 160 Decrease }S(30 399 333 669 36S 360 728 66 Decrease 1801 || 334 309 643 || 320 348 668 25 APPENDIX. 337 No. III. Returns of the State of Population of the County of Brecknock in 1801, made by the Constables of the different Parishes, in pursuance of an Act passed in 41 Geo. III. - .…" - * By how lyr...; - Persons Persons Parishes. "...º H. Males. Femalaiº";"| Total. - Families. - culture. Trade. . HUNDRED OF MERTHYR. Llandilo'r fån, lower division 56 || 61 | 7 || 121 168 260 4 || 989 upper division 53 53 || 0 || 134 122 194 || 17 || 256 Llanvihangel mantbrán, upper 45 47 8 || 108 || 109 || 139 || 3 || 217 – - lower | 61 | 69 || 5 || 138 164 | 125 | 20 || 302 Trailong----------------------| 61 61 6 || 146 | 1.48 127 19 || 294 Llanddew ---------------- ----| 38 || 38 || 3 || 71 || 103 || 131 7 || 174 * Llandevailog -----------------| 69 || 70 3 || 168 || 186 192 31 || 354 Aberescir -------------------- 30 31 I 89 || 78 113 8 || 160 Dyffryn-Honddu ------------ 40 || 4 | O | 106 || 87 97 || 2 || 193 Merthyr Cynog, upper ------ 39 - 39 I 99 || 112 || 97 9 || 2 | 1 — Escir, fawr ---------. 42 50 || 3 | 116 || 109 | 73 || 19 || 225 Escir, fechan -------- 46 || 46 4 || 137 || 127 | 199 || 16 || 264 Garthbrengy------------- ----| 20 | 20 | 2 || 37 || 4 || || 46 4 || 78 Battle ------------------------ 37 40 5 | 84 92 || 100 8 || 176 Venni-fach hamlet ........... 30 31 2 71 58 78 | 6 || 129 HUND REI) OF CRICK HOWEL. * * - || Llangattock, Prisc division .. 136 || 137 6 449 367 230 250 || 816 Penallt in do. ........ 88 || 88 || 23 53 177 | 133 || 99 || 230 tºº 61 | 61 0 | 174 155 | 104 || 15 || 329 Aberbaidden in do. .. 58 || 38 o || 343 263 | 70 || 399 || 608 Crickhowel town and parish | 199 || 199 4 269 297 107 || 94 || 666 Llangeney---------------- ----| 68 | 68 || 9 || 187 187 173 || 113 || 374 Llangynidr, i)yffryn parcel .. 60 | 60 13 | 200 149 99 || 24 || 349 Vro parcel --------| 112 || 112 || 6 || 216 210 || 109 || 33 || 496 St. Michael Cwmdu, Cilwych 71 75 4 146 162 216 i2 i 308 — Tretowe, 60. 60 7 134 i 38 67 || 90 || 272 X x St. Michael 338 APPENDIX. | r + ° Parishes. Hº º ºr * Families. Houses. St. Michael Cwmdu, Cenoi... 40 46 8 Blaenau 43 || 44 16 Llanbedr -------- -------------| 76 70 7 Partrishaw............ . Un nº ºn tº º sº tº a 13 13 3 HUND RED OF TALG ARTH. - Llandevalley................. 137 170 9 Llyswen---------------------- 28 31 || 0 Crickadarn ...... * * * * * - - - - - - - - 89 || 104 9 Gwenddwr, North division .. 49 61 || 1 South ------------- 50 Ö{) 3. Llanvihangel tallyn .......... 32 || 39 | Bronllys---------------------- 59 | 61 | 1 Glazbury, Pipton hamlet .... 94 || 95 5 * ~ in Breconshire .... 86 86 7 Llangorse, upper ------------ 99 99 8. -*. lower ------------- 49 59 4. Llanelieu -------------------> 9.5 25 4. Cathedine.-----------------. 38 40 7 Ilanigon, hamlet of Glynfach 16 | 16 || 8 Llanigon --------------------- 74 74 9 Talgarth, borough parcel .... I 17 | 133 || 4 — Trevecka parcel ..... 34 || 37 9 Forest parcel ........ 39 42 3 Grwyne Fawr hamlet S 8 4. Grwyne Feehan, do. 25 || 25 | 16 – Pwll y wrach, do. ... 36 || 41 || 1 | Hay town-------------------- 193 204 || 8 Do, parish-------------------- 64 64 3. HUND RE]) OF PENKELLEY. Llanddetty, Wro parcel ...... 59 69 O — Dyffryn ....... '....] 35 | 37 | 1 Cantreff---------------------- 33 34. 3 Nantadu in do. ----. 17 ſ? | 1 Llanfigan, Penkelly division. 69 69 7 — Glyn hamlet ...... 52 57 5 Vainor, Dyffryn division...... 177 184 7 t [. Persons Perſons ~ Males. Females...";"| Total. culture. Trade. 83 90 1 13 | 40 || 173 99 || 1 17 | 77 21 || 216 142 167 133. 26 309. 31 || 39 64 0 70 345 379 210 || 45 || 724 65 72 52 18 || 137 210 923 || 1 || 8 || 98 || 433 119 || 137 || 67 | 20 || 256. 12 H 139 -89 19 || 260 74 74 69 9 || 14& 146 148 || 120 | 15 || 294. 53 58 || 35 () || 1 || 1 190 210 || 76 j 7 || 400 74 | 89 60 | 8 || 156 107 | 120 177 24 || 227 54 59 30 99 || 1 || 3 85 99 || 89 3 || 177 31 30 || 3 | | 30 || 61 177 990 || 377 | 90 || 397 235 287 80 83 || 522 104 || 120 | 67 || 7 || || 224 77 77 43 6 || || 54, 21 18 15 O || 39 57 57 31 7 || 1 16 73 || 86 50 50 || 1.59 423 459 89 742 || 882 145 | i43 216 || 6 || || 288 163 139 947 6 || 3:02. 93 84 90 3 || 177. 75 58 49 4. || || 33. 45 51 i 52 I 96 202 162 80 || 40 || 364 146 142 182 16 || 288 . 454 || 35 | 125 29 || 889 Wainor APPENDIX. 339 ~~~ - -- . . Persons persons - - Parishes. fºliº M.I. Fºlº re. Families. Houses. - culture. Trade. Vº º in by ºº 41 || 4 | * | 88 86 104 || 2 || 174 Llanfrynach------------------ 65 | 67 || 0 | 151 || 157 78 | 16 || 308 . Llanfillo-...----------- 'º & ºn ſº ºn tº gº tº se| 69 | 73 || 2 | 151 175 83 18 || 326 Llangasty tallyn -------------| 32 || 35 | 0 || 98 || 39 || 89 16 || 130 Llanywern -------------------- 22 22 || 2 | 52 70 69 || 8 || 192 Llandeſailog tre'r graig ------ 5 6 || 1 || 90 | 16 90 O 36 Talachddu --------------------| 37 37 || 3 || 82 94 || 34 || || 1 || 176 Llanhamlach------------------ 25 25 || 1 | 66 69 || 48 || 17 | 19.5 Llechfan in do. ------------- -- 34 || 36|| 1 | 87 | 66 63 91 || 153 HUNDRED of BUILTH. - * : - - - Builth town------------------ 108 || 171 || 4 || 309 || 368 148 || 161 || 677 Llysdinam -------------------| 34 || 39 || 2 | 98 || 100 | 198 || 0 || 19s Maesmynis-------------------| 42 44 || 0 || 111 || 113 991 || 0 || 994 Alltmawr -------------------- 7 || 8 || 0 | 19 20 19 || 0 || 39. Llanwrthwl as ºr gas tº gº ºs º ºs --------- - 87 103 5 191 200 || 385 5 || 39) Llanddewi'r cwm ------------| 35 35 5 57 || 78 || 130 || 5 || 135 Llanvihangel Aberguessin --- 68 75 || 4 || 145 || 199 || 330 7 || 337. landewi Aberguessin -...---- 19 20 || 2 || 6 || || 57 | | 16 9 || 1 18 Llanvihangel bryn pabuan... 69 78 2 | 166 184 || 341 9 || 350 Llangynog---------- - - - - - - - - - - 8 8 2 94 | 16 || 37 3 4() Llanlleonvel.----------------- 35 | 47 | 1 | 84 105 | 183 || 6 || 189 illanfechan------------------ - 28 28 || 0 || 83 88 170 || 1 || 171 Flanafan fawr ---------------- 111 | | 16 || 6 || 994 || 339 990 4 || 633 Llanwrtyd--------------- ----- 97 102 || 1 || 210 947 403 || 97 || 457 Llanganten-------------------- 26 29 1 || 75 79 151 || 3 || 154 Llanynis ---------------------- 33 33 || 0 || 94 | 76 | 166 4 || 170 Tyr-yr-abad tº m ºn tº ºn tº º tº ºn ºn s is in s m as as sº as 17 17. 8 45 51 94. 1 96 Llangammarch----------------| 125 184 || 9 || 424 || 356 | 738 19 || 7so HUN DRED OF DEVYNock. W - - Bevynock--------- sts ºn tº s ºn is tº gº tº... 90 91 0 216 || 994, 350 8 || 440 - — Senni hamlet ----- 67 67 19 168 || 171 | 292 14 || 339 Devynock Glyn -------------- 18 18 || 9 || 104 || 102 || 44 || 13 || 906 — Maescar -----------| 162 | 162 || 6 || 304 || 325 | 397 79 || 699 Crai.--------------- 18 18 || 0 || 45 35 75 5 || 80 Penderin -------------------- 140 140 || 6 || 364 366 | 202 21s | 730 d X x 2 Llywel 340 APPENDIX. - - - - * --A. +— . - - -º-º: ºwn-. www-ºra". <= - - - Persons ** Persons - & By how Unina- emploved!emplove Parishes. º º bited Males. |Females in '. º "| Total, - g- |-- Families. Houses. * * . . . culture. Trade. . . . . . - —| Llywel ------------------------| 158 158 || 5 || 296 347 51 98 || 643 Llanspyddid, Penpont hamlet 25 95 0 | 72 79 69 5 || 151 Modrydd....... 31 || 31 || 0 || 8 || 73 114 8 || 154 — Llanspyddid.... 56 56 3 || 101| 125 179 19 || 926 Ystradgynlais, upper ........ 54 54 3 139| 146 11 || 10 || 284 —— lower --------. 142 149 16 || 36|| 348 448 143 || 709 Ystadteilte tº gº tº ſº gº º -------------| 140 140 5 : 339| 337 249; 26 || 669 St. David's.---------------... 37 40 || 5 || 99; 101; 138|| 9 || 193 Borough of BREcon. || | St. John's--------------. -----| 169 185 13 326 525, 218 337 849 St. Mary's. tº ºn tº gº ºn tº tº gº tº º use tº - - - - - - 294 || 235 | 17 | 514 596 9. 217 || 1109 St. David's in the Borough ... 106 | 166 | 1 983. 33.5 45 100 || 618 Total - - 5315 6800 479 |133981624.014346,4204 ||3.1633 Total, 8S above, Hº ºf tº E tº tº it, as rº … - - - - - - - - .gs ºn as tº as ºn w tº is nº m in tº p ºn tº be ºn ----- a wº .31,633 Militia, old and supplementary, out of the county at the !--- ~ 4. - × 500 time these returns were made ......... ...tº ſº ºn tº ºn ºn - gº ºn tº tº tº cº ºn º ºs ºn a ºn gº . . To which may be added 100 females accompanying the militia 100 Total of population of the county of Brecknock, - 32,233 ------º Total of Males, as above,......... 15,393 || Total of Females, as above,....... 16,240 Militia, old and supplementary,... 500 Females accompanying the militia, 100 Total - 15,893 • - Total - 16,340 Total of Females in the county of Brecknock,..... 16,340 Ditto....Males.---------------- ditto----------------- 15,893 - * Excess of Females, - 447 In the table published by parliament the parishes are misplaced, and there are evidently errors in it, there is also another column for persons not employed in trade and -agriculture, amounting to 11,864, who are included in the line of totals above, # No. IV. APPENDIX, - 341 No, IV, &uantity of Rain which fell in London and Brecon in the Year 1802. London. BRECO N. Months. Inches. Hºjºin Inches. hº - January - - - - - - - - || 0 93. 1 38 February - - - - - - - I 69 3 60 March - - - - - - - - O 43 l 25 April - - - - - - - - - 1 08 || 0 | 90 May - - - - - - - - - l 28 I 60 | June - - - - - - - - - 9 0 | 9 19 July - - - - - - - - - 3 04. 1 88 August - - - - - - - - o 56 1 95 September - - - - - - - || 0 73 | 98 October - - - - - - - - I 77 3 07 | November - - - - - - - | 09 9 56 December - - - - - - - || 1 28 3 96 15 19 26 25 N. B. In July the observer was from home a considerable time when the rain gauge was not attended to, so that at least twenty out of one hundredth parts of an inch may be added to the rain which fell in Brecon in that month; but it is remarkable that less rain fell in Breconshire in that month than in Carmarthen- -shire, and perhaps than in London. - In October the rain gauge rose in Brecon on the 20th, 21st and 92d to 9:30 p. So that there fell in that time two inches and thirty hundredth parts; in London there was very little rain. On the last day of December and the preceding day we had very heavy rains; on the same day in London they had little, and the greatest parts of those days were fair. - ‘x *N O e W. APPENI) IX, . - f No, W. The Descendants of Brychan Brecheiniog, Prince or Lord of Brecknock, Circa, A. D. 400, Gwralde g g o g t king of 3. dryn In a MS, in the British museum, he is *> & A J. e e * º now Brecknock, said to have lived towards the latter end of 4 about the year of Christ 230. the first century. # . Morvydd, sole heiress, 'Some pedigrees have two more kings m. Teithall or Tathall ap Annwn here, first Teithin son of Morvydd, who had - Ddu, or Antoninus Niger, issue Irith Blawd, who had issue Teidheirn, Circa, A. D. 269, | Teidheirn - A' king of Garthmadryn, f Téidwallt or Teithphaltin, .* \ k. of G, Circa 342. Tydyr, Tudor or Tewdrig, t k. of G, . | | Marchell, sole heiress, The arms of Aulach, according to a MS. ry, Aulach, son to Cormach Mc. in the possession of Mrs. Chabbert, were sº Carbery, or as others, Coronawg, k. Az, a cross Or; in the first and fourth r of Ireland. a dagger ere&t Or; in the second and third a crown of the second, and so they are bla- zoned in the jury room of the town-hall of Brecon, quarterly with the reremice, which are argent; but I think erroneously as these arms are much too crowded for so early a day, and the reremice are certainly azure, * j BRYCHAN BRECHEINIOG, king of Garthmadryn, since called Brecheiniog from him, began his reign in the year of our Lord 400 and died about 450; he married and had a numerous issue; whereof most of them had the reputation of great sanctity, by propagating the gospel among the Britons, who had relapsed into paganism, the names of whom follow, as taken out of Llewelyn” the priest's book, in the archives of Jesus college, by the late Mr. Hugh Thomas, deputy herald for South Wales, to Sir Henry St. George, garter king at arms, about the latter end of the 17th, and beginning of the 18th century. The MS. is in the Welsh or British language. * º * Llewelyn the priest or Llewelyn Offeiriad was second son of Gryffydd ap Owain ap Bleddyn ap Owain Brogyntin, a chieftain of North Wales of great celebrity. s' N. B. The D. in this pedigree means daughter of:--m. married, --Vz. verch or daughter, an abbreviation used &n Welsh, “Llyma’r APPEN pix. BRY CHAN BRECHEIN}{}{3. | “Lyma’r modd a treithiro Ach Kynawc Sant neu Cynog Sant.” Thus treat we of the genealogy of St. Kynawc or Cynog. . . - - - : f Cynog, the son of Brychan, the son of Cormac, the son of Ebre the Irishman. The mother of Brychan was Marchell the daughter of Tewdrig, the son of Teithphalt, the son of Tydheirn, the son of Tathal, the son of Annwn Ddu or Antoninus Niger. St. Cynog was martyred on the Van smountain in Merthyr Cynog, Brecknockshire, - BRYCHAN's SONS. —I-I-I-T-I-T-I-T-I- F- --- l - - - ‘. Čy nawg premixemr udd: Cly dawn G.I. Ilien. Papai. Cynodi. Rhwvan lived in | or Cynog. º red-face. m. clydwyn. Iłl w - [1] - the Isle of Man. - - - # * - . -- - *. ſ º St. Clydawc, unde Clodoc, Herefordshire, |- - - - !, - re [2] | St. Pedita. * af – } — - | - — |Marchai lived #Dingator Tin- Berwyn Reidoc lived at a place - Qu; If he be St. Breocus or Briocus, bishop in Cyfeiliog in gat lived in lived in called Trumbreidoc of St. Brieux, and whether Papai is Fabiaa or Montgom. Carmarthensh Cornwall. #n France. [3] Phabiel, r i. s. Cybly der - - Pascene. or Note 4, p. 3. *.. " . --. . Cyvly der. - - - - * . - --- . v u : - - - - . . THE DAUGHTERS OF BRYCHAN. ----- | St. Gwladis, - | - - - who was the wife of St. Gunlen king of Gwent, Wrgren, or as others, Rhiainwen, Marchel] who was the scn of Gliwys, the son of Tegit, was married to wif targhel), the son of Cadell ; they had issue St. Kanwc, Iorwerth hir-vlawdd, Long-in e of *:::::: Kannen or Geravº and Bygi, who, by Peren Edward Long-step or Long-shanks.i. -- ng-man or Long-fellow. p. Llewdin Lwydawc of Udinburgh had St. - ‘. . " Beuno. [5] º, --- . . ! - - . . * re- - *y k …' Drwynwin, white nose or fair nose, m. Cyn- - : Gwtiith farch, the son of Meirchion-gil-gadarn, she - Cyngar, .* was of Llys Ronwy or - was the mother of Erdydvil gwyn dorlwyd V. VZ e. Gronwy’s court, in - and Urien Rheged—she is called Nevyn in a - - Brychan or the D. of Glamorganshire. s Pedigree in [6] Owen’s preface to his trans- Brychan. -- lation of Llywarch hèn, London, 8vo. I 792. _--------------T" - - w | - Eleri, or rather Melari, wife of Caredi sprincel | Cledy (...) lived in f Brych of Ceredigion or Cardigan, she was mother of #There is º in Pe - Rhynhydyr, Ds of Brychan. - Xanthri, father of St. David.' J. tº. * ‘. *: . 2 : * --ee- - [. | Clydey. - - -- . [1] The APPENDIX. 3 | BrychAN BRECHEINIOG. [1] The ſrish call Papai, Pianno, Pivannus and Piapponus and Tingat Dinatius and Diradicus. . . [2] The Welsh use the f instead of the English v. I shall however, in order to accommodate English eyes, adopt the latter, and the English mode of spelling in most names, except where the “dd” occurs, which being pronounced like the English letters thin “the,” and having no double sound are preferable to the English; Griffith and David, being so familiar, will be spelt in the English manner. [3] British martyrology. The feast of St. Briocus is kept April 30. - [4] By a note in the handwriting of the late Roderick Gwynne of Glanbrán, esquire, now in the possession of his son Thynne Howe Gwynne of Buckland, esquire, it appears that Brychan had another son Rhain (named in the Myfyrian pedigree) who was lord of Cwmwd (a division of Brecknockshire) but of him (says the note) and of his issue is no mention made in history, until the last survey of Wales under Hywel Dda, at which timelived one Selyf (or Solomon) ap Griffydd ap Elisseap Yscordia Fychan ap Yscordia Fawr ap Elysse ap Elai ap Rhain. This Selyff was lord of Cwmwd which contains two cantreſs, Cantreſſ-Selyff and Cantreſſ-Trahaern, . . - - - - Inon ap Selyff had issue ('tis said) Elen, wife to Maenarch lord of Brecon, and Mr. Hugh Thomas tells us the names of his wife and his ancestors from Rhain to Trahaern or Trahaern fawr are lost, though Mr. Richard Williams (a Breconshire herald of the 17th century) says, he married the daughter of Madoc ap Meredith ap Rhys Grug: Hugh Thomas is very indignant at this; I use his own words which are in a MS. pedigree book of Mrs. Chabbert's of Battle in Breconshire. “It appears by Mr. Richard Williams of Llanddew's grave-stone, in the church of Llanddew, that he was himself paternally descended of Brychan aforesaid, and that finding but an uncertain account of this family from Avalach to Trahaern, he thought to honour his family by inventing all this pedigree from Rhain son of Brychan to Yscordia ſechan, Elai or Elias, Elysse, Selyf and Einion to Trahaern, which is patched together without any con- sideration to the vast distance of time these persons and their pretended wives lived in, for it is said that Maenarch lord of Brecon was married to a daughter of Einion ap Selyflord of Cwmwd, which Selyf lived 'at the same time with Gweristan ap Gwaethvod, which Gweristan's daughter is pretended to be married to Yscordia fawr several ages before; therefore Ishall advise those to whose hands this shall come to give no credit to it. That I write not this out of any malice to the family may be seen, page 192, where you may see that I myself am also descended from the same family, and that I write it not out of ignorance, I would have you to know that I am debuty herald to Sir Henry St. George, now garter, - principal king of arms.” . - •. - With all due respect to Mr. Hugh Thomas, the debuty to Sir Henry St. George, garter, principal king - at arms, I have great reason to believe that so much of the dubious part of the pedigree as is here menti- oned was not invented by Mr. Richard Williams, whom he calls, (as will be seen hereafter) a subtle lawyer and adulterer, for I have by me a copy of a MS. which was formerly kept at Trebarried, and which was evidently of much earlier date, than either the adulterer or the herald, and which, without the anach- ronism of the marriage mentioned by the latter, makes the lords of Cwmwd to be Rhain, who had issue Elaye father of Elisse F. of Yscordia fawr, F, of Yscordia vechan, F. of Elisse, F. of Griffith, father of Selyff, father of Einion, F. of Elew, who married Maenarch lord of Brecon, who, as this pedigree says, gave it to Drimbennog, his second son; but to return to the Buckland book, which differs in some par- ticulars from Mr. Richard Williams, the descendants of Rhain to Maenarch are as follow. Bhain, 4 APPENDIx. | BRYCHAN BRECHEINIOG. Rhain, son of Brychan married Maud daughter of Evan ap Meilir of Brechva in Monmouthshire.-- 2Li: pass. in pale Gu. - - - Yscordia vawr married Isabel, daughter of Gweristan ap Gwaethwod. Vert a Li, ramp. Arg, his head, paws and brush of his tail embrued. - Yscordia vechan married Nest, daughter of Einion ap Madoc ap Selyf lord of Cardigan. Azure a wolf saliant arg. ." Elai or Elias married Tegau’r-Fron, daughter of Cynedda ap Yardhir of Penllin. Azure, a cross patee Fitchè Or. - - - - Elysse married Elen, daughter of Pascen ap Yrien Rheged king of Scotland. Arg, a chev. Sa. int. three ravens proper; her mother, daughter to Gwrlais duke of Cornwall, she was also halfsister to king Arthur. Selyff married Lleici, daughter of Inon ap Gwilym Meredith lord of Gwinfe. Sa...a Li, ramp. regard, arg. Einion lord of Cwmwd, (Or, three Vespertilios, azure, crured gu. the arms, according to this MS. of Teudrig king of Garthmadryn) married Jane, daughter of Meredith ap Rhys Grug lord of Ystradwy. Arg. a Li: ramp. Sa. crowned and armed gu. Trahaern fawr, &c. [5] St. Beuno was the founder of Clynnog vawr abbey in Caernarvonshire and Llan-Ennian church - in the same county. He was, according to Camden, (who refers to Vaughan's MS. notes upon Powel’s history of Wales) the son of Hiwgi, the son of Gwinlliw, (Gwnlen and Gwinlliw are the same person) the son of Glywis, the son of Cadell, a prince of Glewisig or Gwent. Then follows a longextract from this MS. by which it appears that St. Beuno quarrelled with king Cadvan and made it up again ; Some tell us (says the annotator) that St. Beuno restored to life St. Winifred, (or as others, put on her head, for it had been chopped off) in the year 644, but Vaughan has some doubts about the truth of this, Gibson's Camden, Ed. 1695, Flintshire. The feast of St. Beuno is held at Llanennian upon the 14th of January. British martyrology, p. 17. - r “. . . . [6] Owen the son of Yrien or Urien, and Moryd and Gwrgi, and Peredyr the son of Arthur ben ºuchel, (or lofty head) and Toulout and Hertnav and Dyrvell and Trydyth Gwin dorllwyd, and also St. Cadell, as may be seen in a MS. book formerly in the possession of Mr. Llwyd of the museum at Oxford, where also may be seen that Owen, son of Urien Rheged, had a son named Garthwys, who married Dynyw, daughter of Llewdin Lwydog aforesaid, and had a son by her, St. Kyndeirn: Urien had another son, viz, Elphin, who had a son called Gweith-hen-gar, (or Gweith the aged and beloved) who, by Erior the daughter of Clydno of Edinburgh, had St. Gerwst, APPEND Ix. BRYCHAN, BRECHEINIOG. His Daughters continued. ... "... • * * l - ; Gwawr, (or Aurora) wife of Ely dr Lydanwyn, mother of Llywarch hän, (or the old) king of Man. Gwtvil wife of Kyngen ap Kynwawr, or rather Cadell deirnllyg, and mother of Brochwel Yscythrog. [8] — wife of Catrant the king. | George Owen Harry calls her Gwen-vrewi, wife of Cadrod calch-vynidd lord of Dunsta- ble and Northampton, and! says, he was king of the Ca- teuchlani and Coritani: H. Thomas thinks her name} . Eytech lived at Towyn Merioneth. might have been Wenrugon. Gw 2n of Taigarth, wife of Llyr-merini or Molwynen, mother of Cradoc Fraich-fras or Cradoc of the strong arm, knight of the round table. Goleuddydd (or the dawn of . day) wife of Tutwawl-beper or gross, he was a prince in Scotland, as Llwyd says. Tangwystil or Tydvil lived and died at Merthyi Tydvil in . Glamorganshire. - —, mother of Aedan ap Gwareawn Vredawc. |- I. -- - | | . *: . . 2: ; Rhyneidon of Cydweli in C yer - * . Tybieu f . . . . . mountain; or Myniddy Kyfor . Ffelis. lived at Llandebieu in Eñnrheith, | in Carmarthenshire, or rather | Calermarthenshires - . . . . Kynodori on Kymorth moun- - . tain. - - - - — — * } —T- Aliid or Elyned of - ‘.. . . . . . . . . in Glamorganshire –she is }. Gwen lived in Anglesea. the same person Mr. Hugh . . . . . Thomas thinks, as Giralduis Çambrensis calls Almedha. - * . * - ‘, - ... º * . . a- ", * * - - - *_º. - ~. - - - - sº * * - - - -- - - - *_-aº -- ~ *, * ~ *- : - [7] The English genealogists mistake here (says the MS.) by confounding another Melari with this; the former was daughter of one Gynir, of some place called Cae'r Ganch, near Saint David's in Demetia, as Llwyd’s MS, above mentioned proves, as also that the Melari last named had ten children, all of whom were Saints. - - - " ; , , - ~. [8] Hugh Thomas here blames Powel for the same mistake as mentioned in the last note ; he, (H. T.) says, there were in old times above thirty persons of celebrity of the name of Brochwel , and that he has err'd in supposing this Gwtfil to be Tydvil, the mother of Brochwel who slew Ethelfled king of Northumberland upon the banks of the Dee, whereas (says Thomas) the first Brochwel was the son of Gwtfil abovementioned, and Kyngen prince of Powis in the time ofEmrys or Aurelius Ambrosius king of the Britons, and under him was Hengist first king of the Saxons overcome upon the Don or Dun. side in Northumberland, and because the arms of Hengist were a horse saliant, the heralds from that time gave Brochweland his descendants three horses' heads. Brochwe), theson of Tydvil, lived about the year 617 and 156 years after the former ; he was frequently conquered by Ethelfrid, says venerable Bede 3. Fowel therefore confounds the two persons, and mistakes the Dee for the Don. - . . f º ERYCHAN BRECHEINIod." * … - : § ; ! f - . . : ..r. ** *. - - -, - ' '. #1-#:---- ;w---. ~7 ºf * - - ** - - - : ,ſ. - . . . . . |Brem Dremrudd, second son of Brychan: P. 2s --- ..si: , , - . . . ~t º - - - – — - l º . - - - – - . - - ~, Elai ap Drem, k. of B. . . - Rhigehef ap Drem. m. | Klicwn fortasse, Clydawn son of Brychan, king of Brecon, Elissai m, * , - ... • Liwarch. m. Neubedd son of Klicwn king of Brecon. - l * :- * * - – f' ". +– i - | - - - - - ~ L vºcordiafawr. m. | - Idwallon, | || Tewdwr Brecheiniog, son to Neubedd, yscordia fechan. m. Rhiwallon Dyfnwal, slain by Gradoc Fraichfrás. " | Elissai m. Kendrec, d. of Rhiwallon ap Idwallawn. | | *. º | | .. - —4------ | • | - p F- - - , * - | gaden son of Elissai and: Kemdrec, Iſle | - º, - - tº - - " *- . . . . . --- - - - cadwgan ap Elissai, k, of Four kings or kinglings are here omitted in Llewelyn's MS, the first of whom was Kli-cwn, per- .. Brecknock. m. haps a corruption of Cledawn; the last of whom, Dyfnwal, was slain by Cradoc Fraighfras; . - º _j according to the Trebarried MS, their names are above, s . . . . . . 3 * | . . . . . ::... • “ - ..., • - | -- -- 3– Remap cadwgan, August or Awst apºgadwgan, k. of B. m. k. of B. m. - | - - - - | -- - º . - - st - . - - ----- - : - & I --> - - *:: * \ - º' Tudor ap Rhain or || lºº. i — | º ºn, k. of B. m. - - - Elgisti ap cadwgan- Eliud v. Dugd’s - Rhywallon, - , - | —— t murdered by Tudor Monast. | ditto. . . . . . . --~~ “. . . . - : - ap Rems sº .*. • . & Elissaiap Tudor, k. of * º • , … .. . - ——s—- -- - - • .. --- - - 4 - . . - : . º B. m. '. - ... . $º. A: ‘. - * . . ' - - * -- '...' ... " . . . . . . ; ...” | - " ... ?" ." ºr, . .”, *::::: . . . . - - . . tº: . .” - - ,” ... ." . . . . ſº - . . ." -- , * . ... • . . . . . .” .- : Griffith was lord of . I--- | —iº. I- - gwmwd, now the , Sanant, m. | * | * Madoc, hundred of Merthyr D. k. of Powis. H. . . . Cynog and Talgarth, *- -Tº- jand much other lands " º Hº: ~~~~ *~~ . . . . - ** • --------z-z-\; -, -, is in Brecheiniog. m. || t . . . . . .”. * . . . . . . . . . . —i. * < . . | Griffith. IIke ºl | Tudor or Teudos. | | Kathen - Selyf ap G. lived in - - * > . | - “. . . . * ; : --- . . . . . . ~~ : ". • . . ... : : º T. & S. r’ the time of Hywel . . . . T- • * * ſº as º Dda, and had his lands |Tudor ap Griffith, m. : #s, in the hundred of r - s - - {Talgarth, called fi Om tº . . . . sº *, *, * him. canºeleyſ. m. • '- sº Elisai.ap Tudor, 23 - i . . . -- Moreiddisap sely: | | Rºy Eliº ~. H----T | | Tudor ap Griffith. | ;% ºf -: have ap Moreiddig.; !- — — ! * - . . . .” - - Cwmwd and F. º . A tº , ºr - - p * Cântreff-selyff, - | m. A p’. 7. ºłęlyst: Irion. m. - - - - Inon, iórd of & Elystan - *- * rr - p - * APPENDIX. wº- - " . . . . . . . . & BRYCHAN BRECHEINFOG.. | - - --- * . . . . . . * * - * * º, Fr. * * **** , . :--------- † ------ fºo. D. orno, a sºlºſ, m. Magº" Trahaeºap ºon lºrd of Cwmwd is taken to be the son of Inon ap Selyff, it Dryffyn. Fr. 6 - is not certain, whom he married, nor who were his ancestors for three or four .* F * * * . generations. A*. p. 6. . . .” ‘. . ! — —— — —— — — . | - - ! - ºf: - - - Cadwgan • .*. - { - - - *! Madoc lord of *** * ****"... Griffith lord of Bleddin ap. | Drimbennog Cynhawcy Cwmwd and |lord of Llan- Gwalter. i. Powys Maenarch lord of |Cyfoethog, or 3astlemadoc ' ' frynach, - - - > - - - 6. 2 * - land. of Brecon. " Cantreselyff. the rich. m. Joan ap G. p. 8. T p. 15. A p, 25ai. - ... A - Trahaern ap º - -* Bleddyn. - . . . . . . . . : lirahaern Iſle . . - º - Gauden, d. of Trahaern according to others, . Rhun ap ºr Elen, daughter of Phillip ap Gronw. Madoc ap Sitsyllt ap Llewelyn. - - •. - - ... * . ...? . . . * ºr zº Howel hen * - k → * | Ieuan lord of Bailibrithm. ... “. . . . . . . . . lord of Cwm- Richard ap Agnes, d. of Griffith ap Ednited ºn m. 9Wen] | Agneſſm. ... wd & Castle- Trahaern, the d. of Hywel ap Ednifed Vyghan or | Gronw ap - madoc, m. Iſle Gam, as others, Vaughan, . Gronw Voel, | Nest m, Cad- wgan ap, Elis- tan Glodrydd lord of Radnor - Ioan m. Thos. | - — Anne m. Davić Marg, m. Mere, . . Margaret m, John Gwalter ap Gwalter ap Mor- - Meredith of Llangattoc. Morgan ap Sir gan ap Sir D. G. To Turbeville, Adv. ofk David Gain. 2d Jett, apkosser} } Glamorg. Alice nå. Owen º Catherine m, Griff. ap of Glamorganshire. John Griffith Powel To Griff, Gwyr. Melyn Griff. Gwyr. ... • ! Marslie m. Howel ap LJewelyn. \ Gwenllian m, Gwilym David of 'Llanwy sc, Monmouthshire Margaret m. Jenkin ap Thomas. | — t | | | | | f : |Morgan ap John Prosser |Thomas ap John Prosser Esq. m., a D. Jenkin of Llanfrynach, m. as Jenkin of Can treff Im. John of Llanbran hén, } Owen of Gower m. m. Gwen]]. D. Jenkin || |Cissil, D. Thomas Me- David ap Jenkin. . . R. W. Joan D. Watkin A p. 10. Havard. lyn of Lougher - - . | | |ap John hir of Llangorse. - - B p, Io. w C. p. Io. | - * * * *. -- - * -- " - | : '.. - -— - - * . | — --- | l .# Evan ap Thomas Alice m. John Gwalter. *r- - Trahaern. A D. m. Howel ddu Morgan ap Trahaern. rº- —ºft * - . . .” • John Thomas m. Maud - Jenkin Morgan m, 10am | |D, Thomas Awbrey of D. John ap Watkin. Cantreff, sister to Dr. Vaughan, alias Bred- || Awbrey. wardine of Crickhöwe].' | : - Catherine Im. Richard | -- | º } A D. m. Mered. Elizab. m. Tho. Morgan m. Thomas ap John of Lanfrynach rebuilt Hennet m. Howel lap John Jenkin || ||John Baron ap Jane D. Rhys his house in the manner it now stands; he - | William. of Llanwigan. Tho. ap John. lap Walter Mor- married Jennet, D. Lewis ap Howel Watkin - \ - w - gain. of Devynock, secondly Crusilla D. Jenkini º – ap Jeuan ap David ap Jeuan Leyson of Keath. Hºwas buried in the chancel of the church; of Llanfrynach, 9th October 1616, with an inscription on his grave, reciting his descent as above. - * | - - * } • ** ! — -- —' - { t Jennet m. Lewis Wm. | Margaret m. John |Alice m. Ho, ap Ieuan Ioan, surda et muta Jenkin of Gilvach perthog in | Thomas of Dyffrin ap Rich. ap Tho, Bullen || obt. obt, apud Douai. Abergwili, Crawnon, gent. of Cwmorgwm. S. P. - S. Pe Caermarthenshire. ...” - - John Thomas m. Anne, D. Tho. Powel of Landough in Glamorganshire, Roger Thomas of Brecon, m, Eliz. D. Rich. V | alias Bredwardine of Crickhowel. D. Ps I O, i)avid’s Jellan, Tho. of Brecon, me aughan, Anne D.W.m. Bevan of Alex | Lisbon a Priest - anderstone, Registrar of St. at Doñaj. E. P. Io. - - 1 - - Thomas John Thomas had issue a daughter Anne and a son Leyson Thomas, who married Mary daughter of Thomas Powel of Ilanishen Glam. He sold his estate, had issue two sons, Thomas and Lander, of whom nothing is now known, and was living in 1707. Thomas, son of John Thomas, married Catherine daughter of Ch. Herbert ºf Penkelley, esquire, and died in the life time of his father & º: ~ APPENDIx. 1-hº ETYCHAN BRECHEINogi . ~~~~ **, *—- - * * sº William Jenkin m. sº º * *, --~~i= £– Al | —- Catherine m. John A p. 9. Thomas. B. p. 9. David in. Gwenllian – | 4- * | Roger John. - D. Jenkin Walter, & Evan William, Iſle +-- Thomas William, . . . m . William Prosser of Lanbrån hēn, Ilow called Llanbrynhuan, m. Elinor 15. Ho. David Madoc of Maesmawr. He sold Lańbr. **, * William Evan 2’ -" " * } -: Lleici m. Gabriel Powel Lleof Alexanderson. +- | Watkin William m. Catherine D. Watkin Lewis of Garreg lăs. | | *=rre- *: | | * | | William Watkin * Thomas Llywarch m.]... . . Richard m. m.Sarah.D. John Maud m. David 3. • * * * & ë • m. Alice D. — Hosºi,” Jennet D. Mor- Evan ap Owen, | | Watkin David Lloyd. C p. 9. kins of Perry’s gan Henry of m. Lloyd of Llywei: J * |Wood.* "Llangevelach. =: l --- I- - j —— * º ; | Sº = $º ſ Owen ap Rich. m. Elizabeth D. 2A 4-l. 3 # * * * - : & Richard m David walkey ||Jennet. Watkin William, Roger Thomas named : Jennet m. ~ of Knolſion. * < at D. p. 9% had by his 2d . . ...” wife Catherine D. David Williams, of Bettws in } & t Carmarthenshire, 2 sons, }. ſº | | | --sº-s viz. Brychan Thomas, Capt, Blanch m. William Leyson Rich.Thomas, surgeon to a of a troop under Cha. I, Parry, 2dly Walter Thomas," Elizabeth. man of war, m. Jane D. Davi * killed in Ireland. Bevan, 3 S. P. S. P. Williams of Bettws, carms. * S P. D. p. 9. S P. | • killed at Maestricht. ~g X, Y 5 * * *} * * —rs Mary and Margaret kept house together for 53 years at Bre- con, buried at the College. E p. 9. John Thomas went to South Carolina. ' Wm. Thomas eldest son & heir to Vedos fach, m. Mary D. William Awbrey, V. of Llanfrynach, Roger Thomas of Brecon, m. Alice sold his lands. S. P. . | | Wm. Thomas citizen of London, sales- mán, m. Peteron D. Wm. Brand of Clif. ford’s Inn, 2d son to Lancelot Brand her mothér Susan was D. James, son to #: Tho. Wilford chamberlain of London. | * y # ..} | & | | | -y ----e. • \ - Jane m. Thomas Morgan Hugh Thomas, - Brychân Thomas. of Llandevalle. & deputy herald Margaret. Yº, Thomas of Brecon, l S. P viv O ob. S. P. G S. P. m. Catherine D. Rob. Berry & S tº ens I 707. Avv. “ . . I 714, * * * of Ludlow, esq. by Cath. —ºn. ––– —4– *- D. Henry Neville earl of * *: s g º * 4. Abergavenny, and widow ** 23. *. ~. -: " - to Wm. Progers, of Wern- . s' . . . tidu, esq., } 3. 4, & " " ' -- 14, **---— • ‘...G. -- ... ...”. º . . * .” - 5 * 2. - Å s * - • ** º . . --- #. * * ..” : t :* -- * * * :- -, *.*.*. ' ' ... . : . • *r • *. * # º' 2 * Llwarch had issue three children w married Rees ap Henry and secondly Owen Dawkins. John of daughter of Morgan Griffith of Glyn-Neath, and Jenkin who married Elizabeth the daughter of ... ºr riºrs 1 s ºr - * * . . . * *...* ... ** ; William...?.... of Penrice, º & º” . . *... • *... ** * { ‘tº ... ". r #. º * § * ** * • ** $. hose descendants, if they had any, are not noticed. Mary Perry's wood married Margaret APPENDIX. #3 TBRYCHAN BRECHERIOC. i - - -- - *—x- • * * - - - - - +++. - - - " . * * . •, - . . . 1 - - - - . . . . ;----- - - -- ºf-a---. - - - - F--- - - - + - - - * . ~...~ *s - - ** . . . " j - º, . - - >. - - - º - - - ſ - - Jeuan ap Rhys of - - - Jennet m, Scephrog, esq. -. Trahaern ap Rhys. , nº º - I p. 8. Iſle - - • Iſl. Jenkin ap Rhys m. |--—l | " | -l. | |- - - Jennet m. Thºmas John m. a D. More. *= r- - . . . . - º . Morgan Griffith. | gan Gethin of Jewelyn. Gwilym. |John ap Jenkin. m. TO ..." Buallt. m. m. - h Elystan Glodrydd. - - - - --- | -*= | - -*-* • Meredith m. = —— John Llewelyn - |Gwirvil, D. Jenkin jeuan ap John m, a of Bwysfa, in | Alice m. Owen. D. Jenkin Gunter| Rhys ap John, - Llywel, n). Jenkin tew. hén, Iłle - an • j of Gileston, - - - - - ... ---- a- l— •-r - i -. * ſ --- - . . . - Gwirvil m. Owen : —- — ent is Gwilym of Llany John ap jeuan me - . . ...Jenisin. # , , YWel'Ile - . .. Elinor, D. Thomas John ap Rhys, Ill., * . . hir ap Gwil. Tho. Iſle - - : # - of Tallyn. - ... : : *= + - - — —T-— John is och m. - | - - | Nest, D. Jeuan .# - - | Powel Vy chan . .# John of Scethrog, i. Rhys ap John, - of Crai, IIl. - - Ile - – - - . . . " •. | , R. p. 12 R p, 12- -S p. 1 2. - - : |- : $º - | :- - - - * . - - Day. Sion Goch m. Llewelyn m. Alice. Jeuan of Pant- Margaret m. John John ap Rhys, Cl. Cissil, D. jeuan Da- |D. Watkin || 2d Gwenllian | Caranog, m. Walbieffe, esq. - me ... tº vid ap Jeuan texy. John Lloyd D. Th. Bevan Marg. D. Jeuan - - - - ; : - Ob. I 578. of Allty van || Bevan tew. || |Dav. Bevan tew | –– –– | | - {John ap Ryº Lysodm. Jeuan Lysod leia, or Alice m. David Nest m, David V, of Caerleon, |Gwyn. 2dly the least, m. JDavid dda, j . - lilo Rees David Rees David Prys Bevan goch. turner in Llan- r- - Prees. . Thomas. . gadoc, Caerm. | : John m. Gwen. - D. WV 131, Vy- | jellan m. Marg. D. David Rh. Richard m. Lleici D. Rich. Rhys m. Elinor D. Ieuan Thos, # Jenkin m. | Marg. D. Ieuan, º Jeffrey Price. chan ap Thos. Thomas. . . . Llewelyn. Llewelyn of - Jenkin David. ' ap Rhydderch. A p. 14.j B p. 14. Sclydach. . . . . . - | Margaret m, a D David Jones m. Lleici, ſwim. m. Jane Ni- William m. Jane, f , " & - 2 * *-*.* 5- - - Llewelyn Thomas Prys|. H of Abercrais. - 30. Ieuan David ap Owen Gwilym in 1713, cholas of Ynis y ... marchogs • Watkin. 2 | Nicholas of Ynisy marchog dry a D. Owen Thomas of . Trecastle. H * T- |- -I * I- | . Gwenllian m. John Catherine m. Rhys John Gissil m. J enkin Jenkin - Elinor m. Ni- :- Rich. ohn David m. Lleici G. ap Edw. ap Rich. | David Morgan Bevan. Prys Morgan. Llewelyn Thomas. |cholas Watkin...] lapRhys of Llwyncyntefăţ - ... . . . . . . . . . . - E. p. 12; 2.------- *_- ** * * ...” $2 A APPENDIx. *— Rp. 11, Llewelyn ap Sion Goch, by his first wife=by his second wife Gwenllian, D. Rees Tho. Alice, had issue -] BRYCHAN BRECHEINIOG. T--- + Bevan Powel ap Jeuan tew, }. .*- David Roger. | Thomas ap Evan of Llanfrynach m. a D. Edward Games. | Morgan Thomas m. a D. Thomas Powel of Maeslmawr. f | John Morgan of | Llanbran hén in Llan- vrynach m. Jane D. RogerGames of Tregaer | Hannah m. John Powel of Cantreff. John had by Maud, D. | Thomas m. Cath. D. Howelm, a D. How. Morgan i.º: Jeuan Lloyd Thomas Griff. Jenkin David Bevan of Crai by a D. David g of 33 º - Jenkin. Bevan David Bevan tew. - Bevan tew of Devynock. Llanvihangel- . . . - nant bran. - } t / *: ch ..",3. Bºº - Morgan of Thomas of A D. m. Wm. m. Bevan POW y- Llanvihangel Llanvihangel Bevan Thomas s - * - David m. chan by a D. David . Crucorney. Crucorney. David Vrych. - |Bevan tew, *--- H | - * | -T- | I —aº- e Evan ap Andrew m. | Llewelyn m. Angh, º: º, a D. Philip Vaughan D. Gwalter David Wm. x * . D, MOT ga. y of Tylauglas. David hir Mered. Thomas. William. David Gwyn, N. p. 8. * —— i l —— t Elen m. David Powel ap Rhys Walter. Sp. II || Lleici m. Jenkin Lle- welyn Prytherch Matthew of Devynock." Lysod m. David Morgan Bevan David Vrych. Llywelyn m. Jeuan Morgan ! --- — | I- * wºr-4-e-a--ms Nest m, Griff. Thomas David Jenkin David. } Bevan David a carpenter of Merthyr º º-º-º-º-º-º-s | *r, J * - i ! ! - —7– - Maud m. Thos. John m. Elinor D. Wat- Watkin. kin David Lloyd. -* Lysod m. Watkin Be- van Preese Lleicim. John ap Jeuan Lewis ddu, Joan m. David Bevan David John Goch. w Watkin m. Jennet D. Jenkin Thomas David Powel Morgan Powel hír of Tylau. i David m. a D. Morgan Prees Morgan of Blaenau Myddfe, widow to Evan Parry §§ goch. Her mother was Blanch D. Thomas David John Madoc of Senni Issa, in Llanga- dock. Thomas Watkin of Pencraig in Merthyr. - | - - | - David Jonesm. Sa. Joan m. Robert rab D. David Jeff- Margaret m. Bowen Goulham of London reys of Bailié Cwm- of Crai. merchant. dwr. E. P. I I • a' Z z / is pºp EºN Tyfix, º º * Crusilla m. Roger Vaughan. 1 *==-serºserete------~ ; , M. p. 8. TERYCHANTERECHEINTOG… - . . . . . . -, *— . . | ~ :-ºr--- ~~~~~~~ --~~~ *=;--> Gwladism, John -----> Walbieſłe, 2dly Lewis ap Richard Gwyn of Glamsh. -*-* * • —— Ljewelyn m. Tydvil º. Howel ap Rhys of Brecone - | John m. Lleici D. * ilewelyn Powel Morgan, &c. to ;Cadivor vawr. *-*. ~~~~ Llewelyn ap John m, Margaret D, John Prichard ap John ap Griffith Boys. Advenae of Brecºnshire, t $ | k- | John Llewelyn, cl. R. of Ystradgynlais, in 16or, m. Mary- *gº- |Hugh a Priest went" into England in the j reign of Elizabeth. | Andrew Llewelyn of Brecon haber- 3 dasher, m. Cathe- Meredith ap Jeuan of Coity m. | Thomas Meredith *º-º-º-º- of Coity m. | of Coity m. Howel Thomas a Thomas ap Thomas D. William Wal- rine D, Hugh Body bieße. Ob. 1634. of Brecon, glovers -— - -] . . . | Clergyman. tº-º-º-º-º: *xyrºsa, ke Mary m. Ed. - - john Andrew of Brecon . . - Peter Iſle at j ward Gwyn of . Elizabeth m. tailor m. Margaret D - Hugh, Yarmouth, and t Glyntawee William Thos, * ſº Soln- settled there. | --- ~ 1 - J ohn Jones of Brecono * tailor, m. a D. Thomas Roger Jones of Brecon of Trawscoed. Ill. - *~ * - - & *. - * - - ſº - - - - • *3. *—s-----------esº-, l - Peter Jones of Brecon, inn- keeper, m. {Andrew Jones, P2ter *g •- . ', Iris ter Prossef -º-º-ºr- .* | – T. --—— . | - | Thomas Jones of of the Castle of Bre- *Mary m. — - - Philpott, * Anne died sin- Wm. Jones innkeeper mi Jane D. 2dly Magd. JPeter Jones of 2diy Richards of gle. Winchester m. con m. Mary Bagot, - ūhn widow of | Neath. S. P. - - - pºsitiºn. ones. [Evan Morg. r George Jones, S. P J 8oz. j - . *— - James Jones, *Thomas Jones. Thomas Jones. * = ºres”-es--- william Jones. Elizabeth. : 44 arrespix. IBRYCHAN BRECHENIOG...] - - - |David ap Evan m. - | | | | Łysed in: Jºhn 3 ** Margaret mMoºl Joan D. John Bevan Cissil m. John Morgan John. Tra- || Owen Morgan David , " A p. 11. David Jöhn, haern Bevan of – Goch. tº - Devy nock. • - - - * • . * — - - - - - . . . . ; - David Prichard m. Cissil m. David Jenkin Margaret had by Mor- - Gwenll D. Rees-Wn. - Tho...David David |gan Tho. Morgan David Prys Morgan Meredith Powel Morgan Power | | | Morgan Jenkin and | - lar Evan Gwyn. B p. I s — hir. . ‘by another lover H -ms-ºf * | - ... --------— - ; - - - | # *-ºsmºsºsºsºsºs . . . . . . |Remºri. - . - I - . Lleici - -- D: Jenk, Wm. | Rees || John | | Thos...] | William | Thomas | Sarah . . . . John of Myty. | > || > * > . . ‘ ‘i. - - ... " . . […--—r 7-#5-----. ; F = -----, g 1------... --~~~ - - - - - x -- - - * * * . . - T - - - - - - , - . - - - - : +– :---------, . :------- sº-, + · · rº- • * - - - . . . * - 4- * . . . . - | * | .* | - - | - #: - | .. - - - … • 2. - - - " . . . - * * - 3 - •-as-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-sºmº-ºsmºsº, J., -*-*=s*-e , sº-º-º-º-º-º-º-º- *=ºssºmsºmºmºmºsº-ºººººººº e-º-º-º-º-º-º-º-º-ºms .. | || Ho. Prees m, ... ' - - - - & Cissil m. Morgan| | Mary D. Tho. Isabel m. John John Prey m. Evan of Bryn y ... Rhydderch ap Lewis. Po. Watk Walter, 2dly Lleici D. Jenk.j ceileog m. Cissil Ho. Bavid Tho. . | by a D. Evan || |David Tho, hir Wm. John Wm. D. David Powel. . • * ... p. Isſ, David. of Llanddoyant. * - # |Richard m. a D. | Lewis Gwilym | Tho. of Glyn- tarill. . * * . s - - - - --~~~~~ * . * * .. -- . - - * " . - - - . - * - - --- ‘. . . . - t - - - - - - - * : , *... : *... . . ; ; Jenkin Jones of Devy- 4. - - - - - noch m. Rebecca - # . ~. , Elinor m, John Watkinſ prichard. . . . . - . . . . - - - sº.-- . John Jones. . Elinor Rebecca || Hannah Elizabeth - Rees | Thomas sºs - * A - —— —-1 - * * =º - - (. . . - A ------ -- * These are the children of Rhys ap, second brother of Richard named at B p. 11: by Elinor his wife D. Jeuan Thomas Llewelyn of Selydach... . From the above named Jenkin.Jones descended Jones of Treweren, and from his brother Rees, Price of Maescar. John Thomas of Llanvrynach, p. 9. had issue besides Leyson Thomas, another son Lander Jones, who m. Susan D. William Herbert of Llanvably, Monmouthshire, they had issue Herbert Jones of Llangeney, who m. Alice Watkin, by whom he had John Jones living in 1707; whether the family is or is not extinct I know not. The descendants of Nicholas william of Ynis-y- -marchog in Llywel, p. 11. still survive, the presentiVicholas of that placeis (I believe) his great gran d- sson, a branch. of the family is likewise settled at Treeastle. APPENDIX. 3. | Brycian ERECHEINo. &: T p. 7. Gwalter third son of Trahaern fawr or Trahaern ap Einon had no possessions in Breck- nockshire but resided in Caermarthenshire, married Joice, daughter of Adam Herbert of Wernddu Esq. 2dly, Jennet, daughter of Gronw. ap Richard, &c. to Cadivor Vawr, Meredith Gam, m. #Gwenllian D. Meredith Bengoch of Buallt. Griffith m. Jane Wen or the fair D. David Trah. ap Jorwerth of Berriew, |Esq. Cad. ap Dynawel. 3.1ewelyn m. Arthur D. Philip ap Elydr, Rhys Llewelyn IIle ‘David Meredith Goch of Gwent. Ynyr. David m. Leici D. Jeuan Vychan Tewdur. ; Philip David of Hir- vryn m. a D. Howel David Bevan of Baili- Anne D. John Goch ap) brith & Rees-iphilip of Llwyn- howel Esq. m. Maud, (as D. H. W.) D. Thomas Wychan of Panty.stry- mon. Tewdwr. *A p. 16. # Howel m. and had a D. m. David Da- vid Prys. : * | Howel Philip m. a D Morgan |Meredith Lloyd Einion m. Howel m. Nest D. JohnGwilym David Owen. Rees m. and had issue, How. who had issue, Sir David, V. of Llanvairybryn, -n. Philip m. and had issue. Morgan m. Gwalter m. Philip Powel m Gwenllian D. Philip John Philip Richard. of Buellt. Elystan, Howel m Rees Philip m David m. Alice, Howel m. D. Rees Griffith |Rees. Cad-wavr Gwalter m, , | David Vychan In- - | David Goch m. Elinor D. Me- redith Morgan David Gam. john David Vyghan Im. | * - Owen m. and |had a D. Elinor, who m. Griffith Goch. Alice m. Evan Griffith leia. | William John IIlo B p I 6. A # * F N }} {X. BRycrºss BRECHEN.ſos. & * - - e #! —- A. D. m. Morgan | : Mabile m. Tho. Gwilym m. 3. Rhydderch ap Sibil m. Llewel- Goch of Ystrad- - ‘D. David Thos, Rhys iſl. Gwenll Gwyn A P 15. yn David hir ‘īy-ffin. Tewdwr David of Blān- ian D. Howel tren; Tewdwr, | Rhys Wychan ap Gwi- || lyim of Llwynhowel Im. Jane D. Rhyddeich ap Rhys, lord of Tywyn Jane m. Sir Rich. son of Sir Rich. ; Herbert of Col. }, brook, knight. |TD t | Richard willi- - David Coch Howel Gwyn of ams m. Mary * >. - - - D. Rºger Vaughan Gwyn of Glan- Ystradwalter. Parr. Çaerdigan. Gwynfarddf| of Talgarth. Morei- brän. D p. 21 E ddig Warwyn, 2dly. P. 2 I. P. 24. *** *-ºssess-ºssºm, | - - C P. 20. — | - * *-*-*. -------- - * g; , \ Rhydderch ap Rhys •. • Reynald Wms. Vychan m: Margaret ºn: º had also, be- of Monksbury- D: Jenkin ap Henry ap SićleS d € C * hereunder court Esq. m. Gwilym Wychan Yrien. named, seven liegimate chil- Alice D. Tho- FMr Edwards denies this . } - .dren. - -: nas. Lewis of marriage. * Brecon. Rhys. S º A D. Dorothy m. Rees Gwyn. | Gwenllian Im. Thos. James of Joan m. Wrm. | welyn How .How ------> ap Einon, sais. 4 *-*-º-º-º: Thomas Gwyn of |- sº Griffith ap Lle- Watkin William in. Elizabeth iY- Watkin "Thos. &riff. Llewelyn Powel. B p. 15. # owel ap Rhys Im. * – Trecastle m. Elen [- * | :---- * :-------, < *, * N John Williams. Toh riffith #Slwch, esq. 2dly John Gri Howel Gwyn net D r W m. Vy chan * ** II]. Jellſlet L9. - e - -> {Vſ 3.1° Elinor in : hos. &#. JLle- Watkin Wychan |Bººl Llwyd of º sº favid Gwilym Havard of Pont- welvin of Gar- " " ºn G P. 18- -čwmclydach. id of >1 as I Meredith Games of Llandilová wr wilym. ly •r-u H p. 18. David of Ael- of Buckland. * - . reg Vawr, fºsq. . . - vanog. Obt. I 625. - - | - - . . ~—— --- : - -— - - -- g- • . . . * * - ! ‘Elinor m. Sir John Thos. Gwyn m. - * gºes ºf Newton | |Margaret D. Edw. - knight | Games of Newton, 3” “s Esq. Obt. 1584. , - - | | 4 .# | } Howel Gwyn ni. Mary | Elizabeth m. Hugh D.james Boyle of Hay Powel of Castlemadoc, Castle, Esq. 1 p. 17. Esq. ºr-r- Elinor m. Roger Prosser of Pant-y-cored Esq. - ...” y º Howel ap Rhys had issue David Powel, who married and had issue Angharad, who m. Llewelyn Gwyn of Llandingat. Sed q. says the MS. - * , x { .# She was widow to Harr pnasap. Griffith one of the Dinas vawr family. Yrien. y Vaughan of the castle of Bronll :--> #. ys, her mother was a daughter of Tho- t APPENDIX, - tº **, BRYOHAN BRECHENOG.T. * Thos. Gwyn of Hay Catherine In. Anne m. Thos. Edward Gwyn off - ... I Castle, Esq. m. Anne Humphrey Ber-| Pºwel 3d son to Glyntawe m. Rowland Gwyn. D. Sir David Williams rington of Bish- Hugh Pow. of Mary D. john - # , “” of Gwernyved. I p. 16.4 opstone. Castlemadoc. Elewelyn, clerk - |--|-- |- - - - - , - . . |Anne In , VV alt- - Mary m. Edw. Rachel m. Rich. #. - - | Howel Pavid kin Vaughan of Eliz. Obt. | williams of Gwyn of Gwems Edward Gwyn of Glynt, Gwyn. S.P. |Gwyn. S.P. Trebarried, S. P. 1702. |Llangattoc,esq. pa, Esq.Gwrgan! | had an i.legitimate son. Esq. Obt. I 690. - | - —l. Eºward Gwyn me. | - | - | - - Angharad D. Rees Thomas Gwyn of john Gwyn of Rowland Gwyn of : #. º †. •, Pant-y-cored, esq. Abercrafin Glyn- Brecom, mercer, m.]. 3. º: º #: | m. Mary D. Hugh || tawe, m. Anne | Sarah D. Daniel P rew mawr, Penry V. of Devy- - D.Thomas Price of wynter of Brecon, - - - * * * * * * - **- nock. Obt. 1696. Abertre weren, gent || | Apothecary. | - | - - & K p. 18. - - - º-º-º-º-º-º: .. - - | | Fº TT |Eaward|| John || | Samuel Gwyn | | Senj. Gwyn of - - A D. m. Eóward Gwyn v. of - . ‘m. Cath. D. Thos Bristol, mercer, * Benj. Gwyn Brecon, a D. Wm. — i. Wms. of Baili- m.a. D. Rowland JohnGwyn. of Bristol, Philips of Penrhiw-j. brith. Obt. 1688. . Gwyn. - - | In eI'Cer. | tyn, near Neath. - —- - *-*sº ——— — -T— . B.º. m. Edward Gwyn Samuel Gwyn - - - #n 113 L. f. , e.Vi.S - m. Elinor Mor-1 m. and had issue iiiz, G. - we carv, , tº r +* * ſº -i- Havard off)evy- - -- 1. D. Sarah | Eliz. Gwyn. Howel Gwyn. | win; Gwyns...} - game. *...* a... i g !: nock. Obt. I 737. - | | - | | - - - | |Tho..Gwyn al - - .* * Margaret. Obt. I 730. | st-we-a-s-s — --~~~~~~------------ess --- ł - . . . Cath, m. John Llewelyn Thos. Gwyn: , Anne S. P. of Ynis-y-gerwn, esq. | S. P. 1749. - $ 757s. 2dly Wm. Kemeys, esq. } - | - Obt, I 783. f | *** , * The persons named in the first line at the top of every page, are the children of him from whom. the reference is made, unless it be particularly stated to the contrary; thus, Thomas, Catherine, Anne, Edward and Rowland Gwyn are the children of Howel Gwyn. I p. 16. t She died at Ynisy gerwn, in the parish of Cadoxton in Glamorganshire, in which church there is a monument to her memory. - #3 APł? END IX, *- TBRYCHAN - R_ * –$– | v- Edward Gwyn Barrister m. Frances widow of }Sir Throgmorton, K. p. 17. | Thomas Gwyn m.jane D. Thomas Gunter of *Gileston, esq. Obt. I 685. | -wº knt. Obt. I 668. | BRECHEINIOG. : | : “Charles’ Swyn of ‘james Gwyn of New Monmouth, attorney m, Radnor m. Elizabeth'D. a D. Joseph Glanville, John Brewster of Bur- clerk, chaplain to c. 2. | ton Court Hereford. ! { f | t John Gwyn m. Barba- William Gwyn of Neath attorney m. *}ra Jones, she afterwards Eliza. only D. and afterwards heiress m. Gabriel Štringer. of Hugh Edwards of Llanddoisant. “Obt. 1749. buried at Llantwit, | near Neath. * Howel Gwyn of Aber- * He is called on his tomb- * - | - { cynrig m. Gwenllian. stone in the chancel of the ‘I ; | { - obt, 1740. * Priory church, H, G, of Aber- john Gwyn attorney ºf - cräf. r - m. Priscilla D. Matthew - James II], Susan. Hugh Roach of Barnstable, *; - →- f : S. P. S. P. o” . Obt. 1780. Buried at # | Howel Gwyn of Glazbury, afterwards Lantwit. - of Newton m. Elizabeth D. William * Lewis of Llechdoli, by whom he had - F--- one D. who died young, 2dly The-| | resa Maria—He was Sheriff of Bre- | | y º —: º- conshire in 1761. - - Elizabeth Wm. Gººn, atty...; | | - | —- .#Matthew Gwyn m. Gab. Will, Obe iºn. Marianne, D. - esq c Jeffreys, infans. John, Roberts of attorney. Barnstable. Theresa Maria. Gwen María - *** * - §. P. 12. ... S, P. . john. S.P. | ×as \-----~ 1, Elizabeth Watkin Vyshan, 2d son of -- * + By his secord wife, a D. Rees Prichard Prees of Llwyncyncyntefn, he had issue, Elinor m. Howel Pry- Thomas Gwyn of Trecastle, m. Alice D. David Gwilym, sister to Thomas David of Llandeveilog Dyffryn Honddu. David Lloyd afterwards m. Maud D. Watkin Gwilym Prosser of Llangynidr.f H. p. 16. idderch Morgan Prys of Llangam- - march. *-**a — | } |Agnes m. John Lloyd of Llan- déloisant. —a– T- - - Jennet VV Im. John Wm. of Henwyd apjenk. Madoc of Słwch G. p. 16. | | w | * Howel Gwyn of Llangynidr. | | | Watkin David Lloyd of Cwmcly- dach m. Ioan Philip Prosser Tho-hir of the Pool, | | Thomas. Agnes m. Edward Jeffreys. Maud m. pavid Pry- dderch 3Bowen of Llan- ddoisant. |Margaret m Griffith ap Llewelyn ap Gwilym. Jennet m. Evan Lle- welyn Goch of 'Scly- dach. ## See the remainder of Watkin Lloyd's children - continued next page. APPENDIx. #9. / f | BRYCHAN BRECHEINIOG...i .* - --~~~~~4° Sibil m. Morgan Rees of Nantgwared. *...* ... William watkin m.] Margaret D. Roger | - | }. Jane m. Rees Penry, son to Thomas Meredith Penry of Llangammarch : Elinor m. John Bevan John Goch, 3'-- Thos. Watkin m. Sibil D. Ho, Tho. Powel Watkin of John Watkin m. f Joan D, Ph. Jeºk. David Lloyd of Llandiloºr ván m. Joan D. Evan Morgan Bevan, Smith. Jeffrey. tew Powel Gwilym - Ynisygyfarch. of Sclydach.* | —— — ——— T | | | Jennet m. I David Lloyd of Watkin m. a D. - jelik. Wrm. < | BRYCHAN BRECHEINIOG. C p. 16. Thomas Gwyn of Trecastle by his second wife Elinor, D. Jenkin Awbrey hir had issue. Jane m. Evan David - Griffith goch of Glyn s * -- | David goch of Baili in goch ap Evan Philip Rhys G17th m. Elen D. - - Trayan glās m. Gwenll. Walter, 2dly David ap -- Owen Morgan Phillip - - D. Jenk. David Bevan’ Nicholas Probert. t of Hiryryn” . . . . . . tew mawr of Bronydd ~ . . *—s | - - f in Llywel. * | —— —— —— - - - A infra. &Jane II] s John EWalt n.Thoma. - Tho. Griffith m. Sir Hugh Griffith -- *. *. - - Prees’wyth of | . Prees’wyth, Isabel D. David V. of LIywel inj + He had issue Wm. Hugh, who m, Elinor Myddve. bro. to John...” Gwil. Vaughan 1558, m.f D. Howel Gwyn of Trecastle, esq. - - of Cwmdwr. Ob. I584. - w ~ | | | | −TL | Cath. m. John Eien m. David Gwenll.m. Tho. Ho. m. Gwladis Gwilym Morgan Morgan Prees Llew. Prees of D. David Gwi- - ºrius o– Powel vawr of |Llwyd of Llan- Atº. lym, &c. of 3David r William Owen. of Myddve. dilo’rvân | s Maescar. *— — — A —— - | —— — | - Tho. Powel of Glyn. Rh: - {Elizab. m. Tho, Po. Elen m. Jenkin . . * Gl, m. Jennet D, Hugh | Bevan David goch David Morgan - - - Powel of Castlemadoc, of Llywel, 2d Tho, • Melin of Morgan * Griffith esq. widow of Watkin Traunter of Herefa. Illandilo’r vän. w - - Wm. Prichard of Allty - l—- | gº- brain. - - - " .. w ~ Howel Thomas m. |A supra- Thos. m. - William m. Angha- Cath. D. Rees Prees] . - | D. Roger Jenk. | Jenkin m. rad D. Gwilym . of Llandovery, - Prees goch ap Jenkº || - g David Powel hir. . . . mercer. Prich; of Aberescir - To Jolo goch. *... *-*.x | ſ Howei William of z - - | Llywel m. Thomas m. * - I -— Angharad D. - - j– |-- Jenkin Bevan. Rich. Williams of, - Llywel, attorneym. - Nest D. Thomas H - - Bevan.j |. Jenkin Thomas ... • - | a tailor. - i. —- * * > r 'Gwenllian m, Two. Games of Llanddewi **s- * By his 2d wife Elen, daughter of Rhys Bedo of Myddfe, he had issue Henry and Watkin. Henry had issue Griffith Harry, who married a daughter to Philip David Walter, who had issue Harry who married Margaret daughter of Rhytherch Morgan of Cwmdw’r. - † He was (says the MS) “a great genealogist, after mentioned by the name of Mr. R. W. and D. H. W. i. e. Dic. Howel William, a most notorious adulterer and subtile lawyer.” This note I have reason to believe, was written by Hugh Thomas, his brother herald and competitor. Thomas is not satisfied with this mark of his displeasure, but he makes him illegitimate, although it is nearly certain hé was the offspring of parents united in wedlock. s - - A a 2. - . —r- BRYCHAN BRECHEINIOC. i David coch is wyn of Glanbrān; a foresaid, H. Elizabeth D. | Morgan Bowen of Llechdynny. Esq., Yrien. D p. 16. ^. - - - - Gwenllian m. Robert Vaughan. A. D. m. Wm. Vaughan of Winforton, Heref. | / - | - - - - - | Rhytherch Gwyn. esq. Tho. Gwyn of Cyngordy m. Joan D. Thomas m. Eliz. D. Lewis f Barret of Gelleswick, Thé. of Cwmgwili. Cadí. Pembrokeshire. Va. Włº, E. p. 23. – * - - | - ... " Rees Gwyn m. Dorothy £). Rhytherch ap Rhys | |Yohan of Llwyn howel, (she afterwards m. David; I-. º of Cyngordy,)* | David Gwyn, esq. m. Joan D. John Games of Aberbrän, Esq., A D. m. Lewis David of Llansevin. |, Morris Gwyn m. a D. Rees Wm. Tho... goch of Ystradyffin, esq. and had issue. | John Gwyn of Llanel- wedd III. Mary D. |Jeuan Lewis of Harpton. eSQi. . . | Rowland Gwyn m. Gwenll. B. - Ho. John Powell of Cwmtoiddwri wid. Tho. Lewis of Harpton. Gu. a li. ramp. az. Cr. or. | A D. m. John Prees Meredith goch of Bualit Rhytherch Gwyn m. Mary D. * Sir Thomas Jones of Aber- marlais, Kn. Yrien. y : David Gwyn of Llwyn- §howel m. Joan D. Geo. |Morgan of Llandinoſ and Penycoed, Monmouthsh), Philip of Llangyncr. | therch who had issue . & A. D. m. William w t Wm. David coch Gwyn m. and had issue Rhy- Thºmas. - | Catherine m. George David Powel of Ystradwalter. | T —- T- |Jane m. Tho Rowland ||How. Gwyn |John Gwyn m, a Anne m. Winn. Geo. Gwyn, Mansel of Gwyn. n). Eliz. D. iD. Rowld. Price Gwyn of jof Llwynh, David Gwyn m. Anne D. James Lewis of Harpton. Tewdwr. * Roderick Gwyn m. , Margaret D. Charles i Vaughan of Dunfield. | *- Sibil m. Geo. Gwyn of Llwynhowel. | * Wm. Jeffreys. | t -- : - * Swansea, S.P. Herb.Jones|| of Llanwrtyd & Taliaris, Esq. Ille C p. 22. || had Î D. m. * - - B p. 23. —r- * He had issue, William Prees of Llwynhowel, who m. a daughter of Lewis Bowen ap Sir Walter of Llandovery, by whom he had issue, Rees to his cousin David Gwyn. - Gwyn who m. a D. Gregory Morris; he sold Llwynhowel f Herbert Jones was second son of Sir Thomas Jones of Abermarlais, knight, he was vicar of Llan- gattock, juxta Usk, in the county of Monmouth, * A PPEN O I X. ---- "BRYCHAN BRECH -- º EINIOG. i Susan m. Thomas Gwyn of Cyngordy. - C. p. 21 : Lloyd of Llangemach. -** I * Wyndham Dunraven. - * wº-wy 1–– Elizabeth m. Jom | Anne m. John Jºnes of Abermaed, in Cardiganshire. | f Beata m. Stephen |Donne of Glanedwy in Radnorshire. Mary m. Thomas |Powel of Pence, rig, in Radnorshire. | Rowland Gwynne m. Anne. D. Humphrey Ob. 1676. | Rodk. Gwynne-of Llan- vair-gilgy dyn, Monm. How. Gwyn of Ty mawr in Breconshire. Obt. 1664. S. P. Sam. Prichardoffrynioie –4 | | Fºres --ºorººs ſº º º Sºr- | • *-* - - - - - - - | ... [Howel Gwynne of Brynioie m. m. Mary D.& heiress of | Joan m. Hugh | .# Mary m. Edw." Elizabeth Im. —|| | } | Sarah m. Charles -—- se -: Hi- - !— -* - r & Heira f - Anne m. Rich. Eliz. m. Richardſ, Sackville Gwynne died Rowland Postman lº D. ; º º mdk. W ms. of Aber- Stedman of single in 1734, and gave Gwynne Rees Price wynnº o Gaº , a Judge on the bran, 2dly Lam- | Strata Florida, . his estate to Rod. 2d son || || S. P. of Cilmeri. N.W. circmit, ob. 1708. " broke Hughes. esq. of H. Gwyn of Brynioie” - t " . . |- - ! . . . . | | | Jan died Mduke Gwynne Rodk. Gwynne | Sackville |Rice - Luke Mary m. — Anne m. - || single, m. Sarah D.Dan m. Anne D. Gwynne, Gwynne, Gwynne V. F. Leyson; Geo. Hervey I 786. Evans of Peter-| || Lord Chedworth || | born 1696. S. P. of Bevynock | } obt, 1774. Ob. 1770. well, Esq. A p. 23. # S. P. | | S. P. 1765. . - . ,'- Rebecca died Price of Hendre Baldwyn of walker of Mary, single in 1799. clerk. Diddlebury in London, Wesley, clerk. S. P. - - Öb. 1801, Salop, merchant. - * - - 1– | Howel Gwynne m. Elizeſ Marmaduke Gwynne Iłº" wid. of Sir John Rudd. a D. Sir Geo. Howels | Roderick Ob. 1780. - of Roath-court.f. S. P.. " | |. Marmaduke Gwynne m. |Marmaduke Gwynne of i. — Parry of Hannam. Llanelwedd m. Bridget Ob. S. P. D. Tho. Wiſliams of - Velin newydd. Ob. 1786 | | Mduke Gwynne m. Mary Elinor | | Bridget - T. D. Bridgwater Meredith. - g | Jane ſ - l t l | Anne. Howels Gwynne. * * The christian name of Sackville was taken in compliment to Sir Sackville'Crow, with whom Mr. Rowland Gwynne, who died in 1676, was very intimate. Sir Sackville Crow took the name out of respect to the memory of his mother, who was daughter to John Sackville of Chiddin g Leigh in Sus- sex, brother to the earl of Dorset. - . . - - ºf Her mother was Dorothy Thynne aunt to the Hon. Tho. Visc. Weymouth, and her mother was Dorothy Philips of Herefordshire, or according to Edm.'s Bar. geneal. Mary daughter and coheiress of Humphrey Baskerville of Pontrilas, Herefordshire, esq. - - - # He married 2dly ----- Barnsley of Eardisley court, widow; 3dly, ------ Simpson, but had he children by either. -- - \ . , , .* APPENDIx, s 2 § . BRYCHAN BRECHEINIOG.. I - * Sackville Gwynne m. Thynne Howe; Gwynne |Cath. Prytherch; he m. of Buckland, Breconshire a 2d wife, by whom he m. Maria Elinora. had I. D. A. p. 22 Matthews. | . . . ——r. -I-I H — — — -f Sackv. Gwynne Anne Howe - Roderick Gwynne m * m. Marianne * Im. Withan * Eliz. 2d D. Samuel - Smithies of John G. - David G. Evans. Catherine Hughes of Tregunter Thynne G. | Colchester. - - - ſ - . - esq. . . - - § –– H = − =l- - - - Sackville - . . Rebecca m. J 3. * * - Henry Frederick º Edward G. Joseph Cheston, j • Infairls. Maria. | George. Elizabeth. - of Gloster, clerk Sir Rowld. Gwynne George Gwynne • . Sibil m. Daniel - - Elizabeth m, of Llanelwedd, Knt. - of Llwynhowel. A D. m. James \Villiams of Anne In. Roger Charles Powel of; m. —- *:::: - - - Ill., . Price of Pileth. Pellpont. Mainwaring. # ‘. Castlemadoc. Thomas Gwyn of cyngordy aforesaid, m. Elizabeth D. of Lewis Thomas of Cwmgwili. - - E p. 21 william Gwynne Ille -- David Gwynne m. - i Lettice, D. John Stedr| - - Dorothy D. Rhytherch Henry Gwynne |Philip own! man of stata Florida, esq . Rees Wychan. W | # - º, - Tho, Gwynne m. Doro- - thy D. Walter Vaughan of Golden grove. VVlm, Gwynne m. Cath. D. Rich. Rees ap Rich. Rees Bedo of Llandovery j. | - t - - i. * Tho. Gwynne, m. Susan - **. D. Ho. G. of Glanbran. Geo. Gwynne - A P. 24- * . wº- Elizabeth m. || | Samuel David. \ . - w * He was the grandson of of Roger Mainwaring bishop of St. David’s, his mother was Flizabeth, daughter of Samuel Prichard, clerk, by Frances his wife, daughter to ------ Hardinge of Oxon; which Samuel Prichard was the son of Rees Prichard, vicar of Llandovery. The issue of Roger Mainwaring and Anne above named was Sibil, who married Sir Humphrey Howarth of Maeslwch and Mary, who died single. * APPENDIx. | ERYCHANTERECHEINIOG.T. s | ----|-- | | , . . . –F– Susan m. Tho. Gwynne Bavid Gwynne, cl. - —r—- Eliz. m. Francis Hugh m. Mary P. Rd. V. of Llanelwedd, John Wm. Gwynne, Beal, clerk, Edwards of Baily, D. D. m. Mary D. Howel Gwynne, of Tregaron, Mary m. V. of Llangam- - Llan- - Chancellor of: Gwynne of Brynioie S. P. officer of Excisel Stedman. man. A p. 23. ddoisant. Hereford. D. Marina duke * •- o Gwynne of Garth. | –– - | | –– | } Wm. Gwynne In. . - | . * - . Peter Eliz. D. John Mor- Baily Rowland James Mary - Jane m. Gwynne, gan of Braham hall, Gwynne, Gwynlle, Gwynne, Gwynne, Beij. Bird of S. P. Yorksh. grandson S. P. | S. P. S. Ps. S. P. - Hereford. of Sir Thps. Morgan - - - - - - of Kinnersley. —r-l—H - *—— ...~ | - | -----—- — as-º-º-º-º-º-º-º-º-ººººººººº. . | —- - Dorothy Elizabeth -- Hester m, W m. | Isabella m. Mary Gwynne * Gwynne, Gwynne, Jane m. Rice Williams of | Wm. Vaughan S. P. S. P. S. Pe- Jones, clerk. Brecon, banker. of Llanvillo, *-*. F. p. 16. Howel Gwyn of Ystradwalter, m. Mallt D. Morgan Powel. Lewis Griffith Llewelyn Powel Yohan * of Trecastle, his descendants took the surname of Powel, his line is terminated in the MS. with his great grandaughter Mallt or Maud, who m. Rees David Powel Prees Walter tew mawr. Morris Gwynne, named in p. 21 had issue, Gregory Morris who m. a D. Roger Prees Thomas Lloyd, by whom he had issue : - - *—- --- —t - - - —-se * A D. m . Rowl. - A D. m. Wim. - * - * A D. m. Rees Prees ap Evan Prees of A. D. m. Thos, Gwyn of Gwyn of of Llangamarch Aberannell. Gelly Powel. —— . Llwynhywel . * However ridiculous this long string of names may appear, it has its use—for instance, Morgan was the son of Howel the son of Lewis the son of Griffith the son of Llewelyn the son of Howel Yehan of Trecastle; upon comparing this with the line of Morgan's ancestors in the five preceding generati- ons, if they do not agree, there is an error in the pedigree. - The MS. from which this is copied states that Trahaern ap Madoc, the eldest son from whom the first branches in this pedigree spring had also other descendants, but that there is an hiatus in the 3d or 4th generation, after which follow Evan ap Meredith paternally descended from Trahaern, who had issue, Thomas Bevan, and the line terminates with David Jones, who married a D. Edward Wood, vicar of Îlanspyddid and collaterally with Thomas Davies of Brecon, whose D. Maud m. Thomas, Penry, and 2dly David Jeffreys. . - A.P.P.F. N. D. H. X. 5 º | | BRYCHAN BRECHEINIOG...i H---- r—- A p. 7. Griffith ap Trahaern Vawr had no possessions in Breconshire; by the marriages of himself and | p - y &S > * . . . . his descendants, it should seem he settled in Powys, he m. Margaret D. Griffi her arms were Arg. three ragged Staves Gu. |- Rhys ap Griffith m.D. Gwilym Probert ap Ralph of Llys 'tal-y-bont. | i | Griffith m. Lysod D. Morgan ap Ithel of Tegengl. | David of Moel y prisc m. Angharad D. Llewelyn ap Jeuan of Cedevin, A.M. Dav.Gwin of do. m. Rebecca D. Morgan Miles of Cabal va, in the co. of Radnor. \ iMeredith m. Maud D. Wm. Morgan of New Radnor, as Llewelyn Crygeryr. David hir, m. Elinor D. Evan Wm. off Tregaron. To Bledri. - Arg, a Lion ramp, sab, besanté, Gu. 3 snakes nowed together proper; Morgan Miles was of the Tylau-glas family. * * : - *- Ag: a cross engrailed flory, between 4 Cornish Cheughs proper. Sab. an eagle displayed Arg, membered and beaked Ge. | th ap Madoc of Maelor, Evan of Llanspydóid m. a D. Andrew Prees David Meredith of Abercamlais. TAT). In Llew. | ~ jº Rich- David Gwenllian m. - Morgan Evan m. Andrew Bevan Meredith of Rich. Llew. Lleici D. Lewis of Devynock, Lanspyddid. , Tho..Llewelyn, | Rich. Thomas. - Ille. I- -* Watkin mi. f Morgan m. a D. Evan Owen Griffith Vychan and had issue Watkin Morgan of Llanspyddid. Gwilym'of Maescar m. Alice D. Rich.j. |Bevan Mered. Gwilym Gunter. A p. 27 \ David Bevan David hir, m, B Pe 26. Owen Andrew m. aſ D. Meredith Watk. Morgan David Po. Wychan, &c. To Maenarch. C. p. 26. * * *-*-* --→ * Rees Andrew, III. Ob. I 570. T) p. 26. A D. m. Roger Jeffreys. 26 APPENDIX. IBRYCHAN BRECHEINIOG...i Wm. m. a T. Morgan Powell Morgan Bevan Morgan of Crai, . C p. 2 # | fMorgan. Wrm. of Devy- nock, m. Isabel D. Morg. Rees Morg. Prees Morg. Prees Po. Morgan of - Trew eren. Rees williams, esq. Sheriff of Brecon- shire in 16I I, m. – Jeffreys. & | '. i. | Jeffrey Williams m. Margaret (). Hugh Powel of Caslemadoc. - Obt. I 637, william Williams m. tº-ºs- Havard. | A D. m. Philip John John Bowen of 'Senni #ees Williams Iſle and had issue. ; ,- -: |- . | º | Lewis Williams t S. P. S., P. Rees Williams W William Williams —l { | | Margaret m.johnGriffiths, by whom she had issue W m. Griffiths of Blancrai now living, jeffrey Griffiths. &c. * ‘Andrew Prees| Andrew m. D Po 25 | john Andrew . - In a : {Andrew John m. a D. William • David and died 1695. John Andrew | | | * John Andrew m. | Gwladis Evan m. a D. 'Morgan Prichard of Llywel, tailor. B p.2 3. Thomas me a D. Meredith David Jenkin. William m. | | David m. Roger | Marg. m. Philip John Dav. Gwyn ap Gwal. Prosser |of Cefn y vedw. Agnes m. Wm. John | "...l. - ap John Scull. \ | Evan m. Agnes D. Phil. John David Gwyn of . | Cefn y Vedw. || - * -- Morgan Andrew Jenkin Andrew of Llywel, | * | - | | # Rees Mor- | Hester Andw, Mor- if gan of Bre- Morgan gan, glover. con, glover. S. P. .S. P. jm. Ob. 1751. - Margaret Iſle David Lewis of Llanspy didd. Gwalter Davić IIle Fps 27 } + PEN DIX. 9 y & w BRYCHAN BRECHEINIOG. | William Walter m. - F p. 26 N. gºº ~ Gwaiter william m. Jennet D. - gº ~. Howel William - — Gwilym of Ystradfellte. David William | - -- - David Gwalter m. Ob. 17oo —T-I — —L -> f | -- | Gwalter David m. Eliz. Rhytherch Ho ſº .: g A * ~~~ : .. t e wel David David ap David Morgan David Evan David D. Wm. Phil. of Maescar! . David m. ; p a - g l D >, –I-. — — I-, - - } - - - i - Rhyther ch apRhyºreſ, David Walter of - & |alias David, m. Alice D . Maesgwalter m. a D. - Wrm. Walter, Margaret m, - Hugh Edwards of . " #Dav. Jenkins of Tylau. - S. P. JLewis Powel. - |Llanddoisant,cl. Obr 7oo - Obt. I 72O. - | lº . -,’ - Roderick Prytherch, * They had issue, Howel who ºn; and had issue, | esq. m. Anne D. Margaret m. Roderick who m. and had issue, Llewelyn Powel. Daniel Price of Bre- David Powel. * s +. con, apothecary. —! | T | Eliz. m. Henry Margaret m. Williams of John Bevan of Llanspyddid. Neath. Cradoc Fr. ** * -- - - sº a . ... * * - - - - A. K. -- - - - , , ; g i - ſº | . | | *. | *, Gwenllian m. || || John m. a D. - Morgan of Blan- David of Mºſ - William m. and Wm. Morgan Morgan * senni m. a D. car m. Agnes D. had issue Ho. Walter Prosser. Prees Powell, - Llew. Mor. Llew Ho. Po. Morgan f}a. Gwilym, A p. 25 -- Morg-Dav. Gam Bp. 29}- . | | ſº | . - | | . . | . - f * A. D. m. Morgan | | Elinorm. Marg. m. Owenſ wºm. Morgan of Tho. Morgan m.' |David IIle Mary Howel m. Gwalter. Win. Powel Jenkin David Senni, m. a D. and had issue D. John Phil. | Joan D, Morg. Lloyd Bevan tew of Lewis Havard of Morgan m. a John of Devy- Lewis Jesses - i of Llywel, Devynock. Blansenni. Dinopsiniewis Ilock. C p. 39 Jenkin. Lewis m. a D. VV m. John apTrahaern Bevan A p. 28 . .. --— . ------ 28 - APPENDIx. TERYCHANERECHENIGCT º - - - X.A. - - * * r - - *p, - * -- ** • - * * ~ * * * w - * * *. • - * º - - . * * , , w - - - z- | r - - i - m • *-- ~~~~. - ~~~~~~~~~. - - - - - - - , -, -º-º: -*. - * *--- - - - - • * 4. - - * - i - | r ** - *** * * * | | Alice m. Rees Je rey |wn. Lewis of Blansenniſ | Howel Lewis of Senni. - :- . - - - - Powel David Prees Griff. m. Sibil—and had m. Isabel D. David #. #.§. º º ºn vychan ofcefngweision issue, Gwenllian whom. Powel Lewis Havard of Tº Goch of Li. critiewel º A p. 27.| | John Havard. - - Senni. - - lywel, ewelyn. • *. 4–––2-—it - - - -- - *B-infra, ===== º | T- -- ~~~ XT - -2. --~~~~~ - - * ~ * * ~ * * | --- º ºf * - - - Lewis Powel m. Eliza. # Gwenllian m. William r- D. Andrew Prichard ap William || || Cissil. Roberts, 2dly Margaret : Humphrey of Battle. - - sister of David Walter - - - of Maesgwalter. –– | | z-. william || || Howel Powel of Bailie || Willi r 1 of * - 24 Powel . . m. Sarah D. Watkin William Powel O. * Lewis Powel had also sever, tº * * * ‘. . . * > * - ,-- 86 veral other cº Q S. P. H. Lloyd of Llywel. Tylau m. , * - her children, –– r—- — "— d - * - - I -: - | - ---> - -Y … º - - - --~~ jdavid Powel m. Marga. + He was of Lewis .º - * *}ret Morgan of Llwyn- e was o tº Aya & David Powel m. and several other childre - bongam in Llywel. ºf Abersenni. - S. P. - - - - children. • - TT. I_ 1– -| | || - , - . * ---. . . . . ... ' - A | jSarah m. Mor-i Elinor == E m. John Margaret m. * Dav. Powel, ||John Powel|| A. D. gan Jeffreys of Powel of Cwm- Williams of Wrm. Powel of Anne, m. Rees ||m. Sarah D. ofgoytrem. m. Dav. ‘ī,landdoisant. padest. Merthyr Tidvil. Brecon, Mercer. Price of Bwlch [º Pºise of and has is: Mat- - - -- Glynllech. sue. thew. *r 4 - -- * * * * - - + - - - : > º l - -- s= * - $.” { - - - - * * - - - – —-T-L . . . . w - David Powel of Walter Powel, - Hºjº Rebecca. . Bailie me - atty; m. Annie | | | Rice Powel. . - - S, P S. P. D.—Basket, |D. Daniel Pry- S. P. o. ~! e & e - Printer. therch. S. P. 4. º - * - -- - - - º - º - \ *- - * — - . S TXavid Walter Powel m. a D. - 1— Howel Powel of Glynllech * Howel Powel, - -—; clerk, • —- | * —- chaplain to a Margaret. | Elizabeth. | man of war. a -F ! l t - —s • * i. - - Sarah m. Phillip || - - - . . pavid Powel. Howel Powel. | Rice Powel. | | Watkin Powel. wº Pen- | Elizabeth. . . Mary Powel. - - - - - erine - - - - *~ * * - B supra. Cissil. Gwenllian. . Lewis, ... “ Williams Thomas a tanner, -5–– * - * • . sº- º - -* *: *—t-–? - * *- *... – º ––– ^ ", - ~ --- – <--- _ ! A PPEND Ix, ; | BRYCHAN BRECHEINIoc. i. | - - - -- º - - - - A. D. m. Richard John A. D. m. David. *P. A. D. m. Wm. David Llewelyn m. Gwenll - Powel. John Prichard Griffith Prees Bevan David Ma- D. Rees Powel Bevan & . C p. 27. ' . Vaughan. doc Bengrych. . . tew of Dwynock. º: II] . º: A. D. m. Edward A.D. º: ºvelyn & º i. º, - | Thomas Llewelyn º G . - A. D. m. John ym 2d flow. {}S. of Sclydach. David Gwilym Thomas David. Gtiff, grach. Bºp. 27. , Morg. of Senni, |- -– –– I-H Phili » David Inn. - Wrm. m. Cath. Tho. | || - . . . . r" < *. I ă. Howel David Im. and had issue, I D. Gwallter had one | | Thomas, m. a D Morgan m. a Cath. D. Thos. ddu | | Margate p. Ricº di D ;: O... ..., | |D. Richard Lle- lias B h argaret D. Rich- 2dly Jennet D. D. who m. Lle- David Powel Bevan & +. allas Bengry Cn ap 'd Prees hir of id Mad * † : . . . ... - - welyn Prichard David Gwilym ard Prees hir o David Madoc David welyn Powel, Meuric. ſely -> Mor º - Llywel. Madoc Bengrych, t B p. 30. of Llanspyddid.} " * * £e. y º - . . A p. 30. - • C p. *} - - \ •e . º * - tº - - " . . Catherine m. Joice m. Lewis | william Philip m. Gwen- ſº David Powel - *. lliam D. Lewis Morgan David Prich Powel Lewis Goch - nag’s head ard. - - couped gu. bridled, Or. . . . : { | | T- Cath. m. Wm. || ||Anne m. How. Tho, Elizabeth Margº et m. ||*P*.*|| Lewis william --—, Lloyd ap John Pow. Bev. Dav. coch Im. Gwalter - - - - - car m. Alice D. - • - y - - - Sr* , . " WIm. Williams of Blansenni m. Lloyd of Bev. Phil. Gwalter Dáv. Gwalter of of Crai Hugh Penry, V. and had issue Thomas. Trallong. of Llywel. Abertre weren. • of Devynock. & - | – * - —H -- ------, Meredith Philips, clerk, Berkley, and || Mary m. William, Howel Prees of Blan- Wm. Philips, town clerk - Thºmas º: IIle º, James Philips m. Maud of Brecon, m.Marg. D. ry D. Daniel Wynter o D. Morgan William . Iſle Thomas Penry of Brecon| |Brecon, and had Î D. ºf ...w. had I, D. Martha m. • ,-, -, - 5 mercer. : Alice who m. Lewis Wm of Llan-y-wern.' Harley Herbert, painter. senni. Wm. Philips of Brecon, º - - - - * ºn + º- . . * barrister ..". D. John| | Thomas Philips m. i Morgan Philip Phi- James Philips m. Mary D. . waiters of Brecon, esq. Mary. - Philips, lips. | | Henry Wynter of Rhydnes. 2dlyFrances widow of Thos. | 9pt. 1713. - o: º: - o; º O28, . . - oº:: i Williams of Taley. ~ * * * e • * * ºpt. 1723. | - – | - | | Thomas Phillips in. Priscilla t - —- Anne m. William Mar garet. Scourfield of New Moatl. William Philips J ones, grandmother of Walter : , - : . S. P. in Pembrokeshire. S. P. Watkins, Ille ob. º º Anne. Elizabeth, i. - ... • * . 1 p. 3O. . . . . . | * - - l * They were both buried in the same grave at Devynock, J anuary 11 , 1695, he aged, 104, she aged 100. - +. Her sister Elizabeth m. Richard Watkin of Llan-y-wern, he having no children devised his property to his wife in fee, who by her will gave it to her nephew James Phillips of Trostre, in fee. 30 APPENDIx. | ERYCHAN BRECHENIOG...] ** gº - -Yr- | . Thomas Philips of Pont-y-wal m. Frances Vaughan, S. P. Anne m. william Winston. f Howel & - **- I- David Morgan m. a Gwenll. m. Howel £). Andrew Jenkin iXavid John David Andrew. Gwyn of Cefn-y- C. p. 29. - ºved w. ~, *eesewºº-wºrsºs ****** Howel Richard Griffith Wychan: . - . 2dly “Thomas Watkins, 2dly — Tºos. D—Thos. of James m, nº. ‘Cardiganshire. * F p. 29. | | . | —l. |→ –— — , I | Thos. Hughes Philips • • * | Anne m. Robert , - t - - . m. Alice Frew of Bre- Evan Philips william Philips | Wynter, clerk, R. Mary died - rames phili CO11, S. P. S. P. of Penderin Bre- single in 1891. James Philips. Ob. 1804. conshire. Wm aforesaid by his first wife. . . . had one D. m. John Prees Mor- Priscilla. Mary. gan, 2dly he m. Jennet D. Dav. | * Madoc, &c. Bengrych. A p. 29. .* * P.P. | Gissil m.Morgan *Pººl lºº. . . . . • i. Morgan. Bowen ap Mor- rid Willi Andrew Prees || || *: g | Prees of Tre- Vlorg gan ofC windw’r David William. Andrew. a D. David Mor- weren, | - - - gain, - | | - * . . → \ gº gº tº rºw oth - Rich. Thomas Agnes. . . catherine: g A. D. m. Howel David Thomas m. Jennet D. , m. a D. David . B p. 29. [. - g Andrew Thos. ddu Dav. | G wil. Morgan. *-*s-s-s-s-sº-smºsºsºs Howel pavid. Richard Morgan m. - and had two * Daughters. Philip Morgan m. Agnes D. Watkin John Dav. Gwyn of , Cefn-y-wedw. Thomas Morgan, m. and had issue, Mor- gan Thomas'm. • ? | , Morgan Philip m. Ioan Llewelyn. * obt. 1676. - | . | philip Morgan m. a D. Llewelyn Mor- David Prees of Neuadd. gan. Thomas Philip Morgan, m. - | * e .. Philip Morgan m, a D. Thomas win. Morgan *. . ºf Senni. . . " j | * ||David Mór. . . . . . " Morgan, gan In. John m. | | Watkin m. clerk. • * ... - - & **— - ; Howel Prichard. | - g - Mary and , Elizabeth. * She was niece to Evan Hughes of Pont-y-wal, originally of Llwyn-y-brain in Carmarthenshire, he bought Pont-y-wal of Thomas Hughes Philips. Watkins, and devised it by his will to his niece Ann, the mother of 349* APPENDIX; - - - ^ N No. VI. ©otton Library, Domiiiam A. 1,) Cognacio Brycham unde Brecheynave dièta esj • ' Fo/. B. 157. - pars Demetiæ South Walliae. No. 6,381. Plut *; E, MSS. Harl. Bpit. Mus. . — TYEUDRIC Rex in Garthmathrin venit usq. ad Bryncoym juxta Lanmaes cum , fi- Ducibus et Senioribus et omni familia sua, habens unam filiam nomine- Marchell: cui et dixit; “timeo de salute tuâ, propter pestilentiam que agat, nos (ad, . qm. vitamta dicta Marchell habuit quia pizonia de corio aiai; opinio enim erat quod quicumq. circumdaret lumbos suos corio aiaI quod vitaret interim ex pestilencia). propterea proficiscere in Hiberniam si forte respiciat Deus votum meum ut queas , venire. Et assignavit pater sibi trecentos homines.et duodecim puellas architriclinii, vitæ pedissequarum, qui omnes conducerint eandem illuc: pergens autem Marchell, primâ nocte recepit hospicium apud Lansemin, et mortui sunt ibi illâ nocte centum homines, que mane surrexit excus locum sedis illius, profecta é anxia tam , de periculo quam de verecundia et secunda nocte pervenit in Madrum, et sicut. prius mortui sunt ibi centum homines, mane quantocius surgens tertia nocte in., Porthmatwr venit et inter houn vitata cum centum hominibus et pedisequis suis. venit in Hiberniam, cujus adventu comperto occurrit ei Aulach filius Gormuc Rex. loci illius cum multo apparatu sicut decuit Regem et causa adventûs iHius cognita., beatus est Rex Aulaeh et suscepit eam, in conjugium, tunc propter pulchret-. udinem tunc propter Cognacionem ejus quia. filia , Regis erat ; et juravit Rex: Aulach quod cum ea rediret in Britanniam, si filium de eam possit suscipere; et maritavit Rex Auiach dictas duodecim puellas tradens unamquamq eorum matri- . monio, et factum est per cursum clm dierum ut Marehell conceperit et peperit-. filium cui pater imposuit nomen Brachan. Cum vero Brachan erat, ætatis duorum , annorum adduxerant eum Parentes ejus in Britanniam et morati sunt in Benne et , suscepit puerum Brichan nutriendum et fuit cum eo septem annis. Postea ortâ , guerrâ inter Reges, dedit eum pater suus obsidem Regi de Powis nomine Benadyli ; quo dum moram traheret, compressit filium dicti Regis nomine Benadulved quæ concepit et peperit filium quem fecit deportari ad sanctum Gastayn cujus nunc ecclesia sita est juxta Maram qui baptizavit eum et vocavit nomen ejus Kynaucum , Cognoverunt autem omnes ex pileo et armillà quo erat indutus i$ynauc quod filius . . Brachan erat. Hæc Genealogia ejus, - Kynaucus ... … --> ºr a , -r-, ºr x:y: ºr, A rºyº * ‘. ." § P : **** * * - - *. - - - - £3: .. º: Jº iſ . . . .” - i.A., - 543. º" -- ſ: l ; ;-- $3,…, , ..., , , , , § 13 firs; ºz. . ; a £, in sº as 37 ºn ºf Hi g 4. - “- ſ yńaucus filius Brachan filius Cºorºº::c àtius Eurbre de - Hibernia, et haec eX parte $ ºr, S s. Ex parte matris, Brac. patri hat, ºus Marchell, filia Teudric, filius Tethphalt, ri 1 a … $ e g * † : * * * j ,, . ºf * * &x.” , a. sº - hazºo • * * - filius Teithrin, filius Tathail, filius Aſhthºn magni regis Græcorum. { § Postea succrescente Brachan virtutibus quievit bellum et pax inter Teges re- formata est: aliquanto tempori intervalſo mortuus est Pater ejus Aulach, qui dum aspiraret ad regnum parentum convenit cum Nobilioribus regni de hae- reditate suá habenda, qui videntes industriam elegantiam generositatem tantam in eo fulgentem fulmaverint eum in regem quicum nobilitate rexisset et summo moderamine regnum adeptum exposuisset copulavit sibi tres uxores successione quarum nomina sunt haec Eurbraust Rybraust et Proestri de quibus magnam sobolem procreavit, viz. 13 filios quorum nomina sunt haec, Kynauc, Rein Drem- rudd qui post patrem suum regnavit, Clytwyn oresgynaud Deheubarth, qui pater erat sancti Clydawc et Dedyn, Arthen qui erat Pater Cynon, qui erat in Maram, Papay, Run quieratipse Sanctus callet in Maram; Mathaiarn apud Keve- liauc, Dingat apud Llandovery, quierat pater Pascentii, Kysner alias Kyffiver ab eo dictus Merthyr Kyslimer, Berwyn apud Cornubiam, Reidoc in Francia inde vocatus. Ton. Reidoc, Gwyndount et 24 filias quarum nomina sunt hae C3 - Gwladis filia Brachan Uxor Gwenlluc filii Glywis Cornubiensis mater Sti. Cadoci, Golen Uxor Llan-heskeyn nuncupatus Tuteval pefer Mater Cunin, R. Tutbistyll ab ea.........mater Thyr, Tulbistyll Tutvil ab ea dicitur Marthyr Tutvil, Tebie apud Ystrad Towy, Kyngar mater mac Kenedyr sant, Meleri uxor Keretici Patris Sti. David, Tutglit uxor Kyngan mater Cadell, Arianwen apud Powis bechan, apud Manav Lluan, Mater Aedan Grataucet Mater Gavran Vradauc. Kerdech apudº Llandegwyn, Nynein Uxor Cynvarch filii Meirchiawn, Gwawr Vxor Lledanwyn, Mater Llywarch hen, Grucon Godheu Uxor Cradoc Calchfynidd, Marchell Uxor. Gwrgeynt, Elyned in monte Gorsavael quae pro amore castitatis martyrizata est, Gwen apud Talgarch, Keneython apud Kydwely in monte Kyfor, Keurbreit apud Gasiogwr, Cledy apud Emlyn, Kenedlon, apud mynidd Kymorth. . - Grichan jacet in Mynav in valle quae dicitur Vill-Brichan, Awlach jacet ante - Ostium ecclesiae Llanspyddyt, Rein filius Brachan, apud Llandevailoc, Sepulchrum. Cynawc in Merthyr Cynawc in Brechenawe. Regressus estergo Aulaccum Marchell Regina et Brachan puero et ducibus subscriptis Kermol et alio Fernach, inde dicitur Émfernach, forte mynidd IIfernach tertio Lithlimich inde dicitur Maenawr Aberbry- nich quarto Lounoic. Natus est Brychan in Benni directusq. est ad Drichan unde dictus Dindrichan. Here follows another list of Brychan's children, different from the former, in which it is said St. Kynedyr was buried at Glazbury or Glasbury. - No. VII. . s4* APPENDIx. No. VII. Carta Augusti ;>. Regis Brechiniauc. Sciant omnes Christiani quod Augustus Rex Brechiniauc et filii sui Eliud et Rivallaim propter Deum et amicitiam carnalem dederunt Oudoceo Llancors Epis- copo et suis omnibus successoribus in ecelesia Petri Apostoli , et Sanctorum Du- bricii et Teliavi de Landavia et cum corporibus suis, ad sepulturam suam in ele- mosunâ et cum suis piscibus et corelitibus Anguillarum et cum toto territorio suo et in modum dotis in perpetuo et cum suâ tota libertate in campo et in sylvis, &c. • • . - - - • Dugd. Monast. Anglic, Tom. 3, p. 195. No. VIII. , Carta qjusdem Augusti Regis Brecheniauc. Augustus Rex Brechiniauc et Filii ejus Eliud et Rivallaun reddiderunt Deo et Sanctis Teliavo et Dubricio et in manu Oudocei summi Episcopi et omnibus Episcopis Landaviæ in perpetua consecratione Llangurvael quæ antea fuerat in primo tempore Sanctorum Dubricii et Teliavi cufh omni suo territorio et ita sine ullo, censu ulli homini, &e. . ' • . j . - Dugd. Monast. Anglic. Tom. 3. p. 21 1. / No. IX. . - • . . Öompositio inter Teudur Regem Brecheniauc et Libiat; Episcopum Landavensem facta de Villâ Llanvihange/ frefcerrian. : - • Notum sit omnibus in dextrali plagâ Britanniæ habitantibus quod facta est con- tentio magna inter Libiau Episcopum Llandaviæ et Teudur Regem Breche- niauc filium Elised propter hoc ; quod Teudur Rex dimisit Episcopum se unum in 3 - • ` ` .. - Monasterio. *« / APPENDIX. 845 jMonasterio suo Llancors, ablato sibi convivio suo vi et fortitudine : et factâ sibi : tam granda invasione surrexit Episcopus in crastino cum totâ familiâ suâ et reli- quit Regem sub maledictione et perpetuo anathemate, et congregatis omnibus clericis totius parochiæ infra hostium Tarater in, Guy et hostium Tigui positæ et ». in pleno synodo apud Landaviam fecit Regem anathematizari, et relatum est Regi et Episcopo David, Lunberth nomine, de facto anathemate, et post intervallum temporis missis Legatis ad Episcopum Libiau et recepta legatione convenerunt insimul in monasterio Llamcors, et judicatum est Episcopo Libiau pretium totius familiæ suæ ut redderet sibi quinquies familiæ quidem quæ tunc tempore: fuerat cum Episcopo quando ablatum fuit sibi vi convivium suum et pretium ejusdem Episcopi ut redderetur sibi septies, hoc septingentas mancusas in auro puro. Teudur Rex videns judicium sufferre non posse per intercessorem suum Episcopum Lunberth quæsivit veniam ; cum accepta pænitentia offerens Villam (Llanvihangel) Trefcerrian Deo et S. Dubricio, Teliavo et Oudoceo et Libiau JEpiscopo et omnibus Episcopis Laiidaviæ in perpetuo. Data sibi veniâ accepit Episcopus Libiau terram illam cum sua totâ Libertate sine ullo censu ulli homini - terreno nisi Ecclesiæ Landaviæ et Pastoribus ejus in perpetuo, &c. * » Pinis illius est de via magna quæ ab austro per spinum rubum, inde ad rivulum Tamguel qui est ab Aquilone, inde per rivulum Orientem versus usq. ad fontem Chemeiam postea a fonte Cheneiâ per siccam vallem quæ ducit sursum usq ad prædictam viam magnam iterum quæ est ab Austro ubi incepit. De Clericis Testes sunt Libiau Episcopus, &c, Dugd. Monast. Angl. Tom. 8, p. 21 I. This was rather a restoration than a mew grant, for in the episcopacy of Gurvam 30th, bishop of Llandaff, Llanvihangel trefcerrian, extending from the high way, which is om the South by the Thorn-bush to the river Tanguell, which is on the North, was given to the see of Lamdaff, by Tydyr som of Rhain king of Breck- mock, as a compensation and atonement for the murder of Elgistill the son o£ Aust, amother regulus of the same county. - . Concilia Magnæ Britanniæ &c. per Davidum Wilkins, v. 1. p. 116, • - - - - No, X. * APPENDIX. - - i No. X. Descendants of Bernard Newmarch, Lord of Brecon. & $ + <-- - - *——--- r -à- r:---- -T- ºf Bernard Newmarch, or de novo mercatu, m. Nest or Agnes, D. Trahaern ap Cradoc, and grandaughter of Llewelyn ap Sitsyllt, prince of North Wales. - | -- • , ; ‘Mahel, Sibil m. Milo Fitzwalter, earl of a son disinherited, - Hereford. - -º- at ... " - — - - - rºy- l *…* § Roger Fitzwalter, m. Cissil, ---. Walter. S. P. - Henry. S. P. d. of Payne Fitzjohn, S. P. - Mahel. S. P. r—-- ". . . . - : ; * Tºt- - Luce or Luc m. Herbert # Margaret m. Humphrey de Bohun, - - - Bertha ma Philip de Breos, º ert, - YV m. de Breos of Breck- - - - hº m. Adam tnock, in. Maud de Haia tº ºr * * •rne , - Sibil m. YWm. or as ilit - i de la Porte d º Reginald de St. Phillip de Bºeos - Dugd. Rob. earl Fer- Gili in m. warren * —- * & 4 .---e:-- • - settled in Ireland. • *- ava -3; e # Fitzgerald. - - †Waleri. Obs. I 213, - rers or de Ferariis. - - | { Note p. 224 - - - - - . - - -- Maud m. Harry X- T- . T-—— “ - - - : Tracy. --- - - __*(* - - —. William Gam lord of Gower, Giles, bishop of Hereford, | Reginald m. Grisseld d. º Y. *- m. as Mills, Isabel d. of Richard lord of Brecon. Lord Bruere. 2dly Gwladis diu - S. P. - d. of Llewelyn ap Jorwerth, |Clare, earl of Hertford.t Ob. 1222. A. p. 2. i § # - { - —- º | lº John Bruce m. Margaret di. of . - - William Bruce - Eva m. Sir Wim. Lang-i. Llewelyn ap Jorwerth, prince of Annora ãord of Llanrhidian, m. ton lord of Henllys in § |Radnor, she afterwards m. Wal- º ro, Hugh Mortimer. - C p. 2, Gower. .#ter de Clifford. B. p. 2. - - - - * . : - 3. -*. * In king John's manifesto William de Ferariis is called nephew to William de Breos who rebelled against that monarch; and Shaw in his history of Staffordshire gives a pedigree in which William earl Ferrars, who died as above, is said to marry Sibil, and to leave a son, William earl Ferrars, who died 1246. This Sibil was therefore in all probability a daughter to Phillip de Breos and Bertha ux. £)ugdale in his baronage says, Sibil was daughter to William de Breos and Bertha ux. D. Milo Fitzw. This is evidently an error as the husband of Bertha was certainly Phillip and not William de Breos. # William had also seven other brothers, Walter, Henry, Thomas, John, Philip, Robert, Foulk and one sister, Maud, married to Roger Mortimer, and secondly to Griffith ap Rees, prince of South Wales. She died 1210, and was ºuried at Ystradfºur, - g APPENDIx. A i º Wm. Bruce m. Mary D. - * º S. . — Elizabeth m. Robert of Wm. Lord Rosse, º William Bruce, Fitzstephen earl of Cork Ob. I. E. I. he bore az, i. tº º 2 Llewelyn, Iſle • e knt, she bore arg. a * : B p. 1. a lion ramp. int. Io. chief indented sab C. p. 1, - **. cross crosslets Or. . . . ev. - | | i *E* ––– - | l 1 | ~ * i —--------- I -, ..., , , , , - * —— ſai - William | Wrm. m. Aliva, D. of Tho, m. Beatrix, D. of . . John Bruce, i - - - - - . & 2 * : * , Maud, as Cl. I]] S. P Tho. de Moulton ut alii X c. tº c.1- ichard Roger Mortimer, widow Cook, Im. Sir e. e -º, tº Eliz. D. of Edm. de Sully Peters Ric all Cla Tho. of Brotherton earl | Nº. Martin º | Ob. I 6, E. 2, - of Norfolk, Ob,23, E.3. 44.1 e te Wall Cle - ^, | t --- | } | } . . i - I | j I —— \ ſºn m. John de John m. Sir Thomas] . - | Sir William Oliva m. John Bohun of Mid- Eliza. D. of , |Bruce, knt.| Ioan. Beatrix m. Wm. Bruce knt. m. lord Mowbray. hurst. Edw, Mon- - S. P. S. P. Lord Say. * | *- Winstone - - , 2 tague. S. P. . - —T- § a. * Sir Peter Bruce ...” | T Eliz. m. Sir william Heron | | knt. m. a D. of Sir John Wadan - Mary m. Jeffrey W illiam (occisus 14 H. 3) ms John Bruce of knight, knt. Clement lord of Eva D. of Wm. Marshal earl of Zlanhinoc, q. - i f Caron. Pembroke, - ill a * * * * - Cal º; m prokee Sir Rich. B. | Beatrix m. p. I - • . {- i - . - | i m.—a D. Sir Hugh - -- |, — Bonvill. Shirley, # - * * * *— -— | ſº S. P. knt. #sabel m. David ap Jºlinor m, Hum- Maud m. Roger, º l Llewelyn prince of phrey Bohun the 6th . Mortimer earl of Evá m. William North Wales, 2d. of that name. Wigmore, 2dly Bri- Cantelupe. ‘f 3. } Peter Fitzherbert. * - an de Brampton. —— | º, i. & . - g + — —--— —k | William m. . | • * : * * Agnes B. of Ed-l Humphrey de Bohun the 7th, mund de Sully. - lord of Brecon m. Maud D. of | - Ingeli am de Fiennes. Ioan m. Sir John | — t Penrice of * | Gower. - - . + His eldest son, John, m. Alice daugh- Humphrey the 8th m. Eliz. ter of Edm. Fitzalan, earl of Arundel, \ f D. of E. I. king of England. | secondly Margaret, daughter of Ralph lord - | Basset of Drayton. S. P. - *N, Elinor 'm. James Margaret m. Hugh s Wm. earl of Nor- w —- •- Butler earl of Or- Courtney earl of Humphrey. ||thampton, m. Eliza, Edward, mond. | Devon. S. P. D. of Barthw. lord S. P. in 1344. Hºneas, Y- Baddlesmere, A. p.3. | } - . . " $ : (page 1) * Dugdale says, William de Breos had by Maud de St. Waleric three other daughters; Joan who married Richard lord Percy; Loretta married Robert Fitzparnell earl of Leicester who had with her the lordship of Tavistock in Devonshire, and Margaret married Walter de Laci. Baº . £Orłage, p.418. sed q. f † Ella (according to another MS.] §i) .*.*.* :’. error. C g : the youngest daughter, married John Mowbray; but this is APPENDIx. - . . . 3 ::=A tº: – * , . " := - - :----' * - 1 -.' . . . . . . .” *- .*_ _ - : *** * * * * *. - ' -- ~ :- - - - - *_ - . . . . . = - *** - - - - - - - - - - - - ... - - ---- *-ess. *** ***** ſ . —---------4 - : -, * Humphrey de Bohun m. Joan D. Richard - ~. . Elizabeth m. Richard Finalant Fitzalan, earl of Arundel. . A p. 2. earl of Arundel."' | - ~~~~ —º Elinor m. Thomas of Woodstock, 6th Mary m. Henry the fourth king : son of Edw. third king of England. , sº of England. | — f * > . § | ' ' . . . Anne m. Edmund Stafford, ear Henry the 5th King of England of Stafford, - m. and had issue. Humphrey Stafford duke of |Buckingham m. Anne D. Ralph Neville, earl of Westmore- Anne m. Edmund Mortimer earl of March, 2dly John land Holland earl of Huntingdon, -- - - - - - - º - - - - is- | - - - - | } d *:::: Awbrey a Catherine m. Johr, Joan m, win. Vis- - - e Vere earl of Oxford, Talbot, earl of count Beaumond; Richard. 2d son. - - 2.dly Sir Thos. Cobham, - sirºu, 2.dly Sir William - s.'p i . Ralph, 3d son. 'son of Reyn'. L. Cobham. - y • Knevett, knight. - - } Humphrey eldest son Sir Henry St. 4th | - * - John earl of Wilt- m. Margaret D. Edms | | Son, m. Margaret Edmund ** * * * * shire m. Constanc Beaufort earl of Somer- countess of Rich- | S. P. • George. Williams |D, Sir Henry 3. i set. Ob. vita patris. - mond. - - - ... < . knight. ; - - — - ~ - - & | - - • * , - in - £d | º * 5xy: 14-, 1A + 1. Henry duke of Buckingham m. Catherine D. Richard Humphrey as Mills, Edward earl of Wiltshire. | Widville, earl of Rivers, beheaded, 1483. : . - ‘S. P. ~ ! .dºt. - - . - - r - - - - | | – ——— - —— —-- & . - Anne m. Sir Edward m. Eleanor] . . [Henry earl of Wijts| . º Walter Herbert, D. Henry Percy, m. Muriël, sister & . Humphrey. - waiter. 2d Geo. Hastings, earl of Northumb. coheiress to Sir - S. P. º tº earl of Huntingdon. | beheaded 1521, John Grey. * — * | | —— – – - - * - f Henry St. lord Stafford m. Elizabeth m. Thomas | - Catherine m. Ralph Ursula D. Sir Richard Pole, H sº jº ...is Neville earl of West- Ob, I 562. - * * * - moreland. Mary m, Geo. Neville, - baron of Abe: gavenny. | | | - ſº — t—- £iºns wº. e - & . - * - --- % e 1 & , Si W $ Henry Stafford lord Stafford, according º - ~ 2- ford sº . r £, ºni 3 ori-e a - died sº ºn 1 in or 2 . aret D. LCIwar Rich. Stafford m ter Stafför . to a family pedigree; died young; "earioſ Derby. in. tafford º Walte ar SČa - f – j l | # l - i ºrce – Dorothy in. -- | | Edward lord Stafford m, . . ." - : - *Jrsula m. Yºlº Urwick, Gervais of Chad- Isabel D Thomas Foster Roger Stafford. Jane m. a joiner. , - Q- $den, of Tonge in Shropshire. - - - * > * * --- * x -º- Edward lord Stafford, last named, had issue, Edward who married Anne D. James Wilford of Newnham Hall, Essex; he died in the life time of his father, they had issue, Henry lord Stafford who died 1637, unmarried and Mary who m. Sir Wm. Howard, K. B. created baron and baroness Stafford, they died without issue, upon which the title became extinct. Roger Stafford petitioned for the bar xony, but surrendered his right to the crown in 1639. - APPENDIX. sas No. XI. List of Manors in Herefordshire vhose Lords otoed suit and service to the Court at Baili glis in the Castle of Brecknock. era stranº ºra si as-as-a-e-rºaaa-a-na- Parcella Possessionum nuper Ducis de Buckingham. Nomina diversarum personarum qui de Com Hereford tenent sub Curia de Baili Glds infra Dominium Breconie fin S. VVallia. 1. Thomas Conningsbie Miles pro Manerio de Tadstone Waffard. 2. Johannes Scudamore Miles pro Manerio de Humber, 3. Thomas Lucy Miles pro Manerio de Kingston, 4. Edwardus Fox Miles pro Britt's Court. 5. Carolus Morgan Miles pro Britt's Court. 6. Johannes Rudhall Miles pro Maneriis dè Woston Britt. 7. Ricardus Monnington Armiger pro prima parte Manor. de Burghill. 8. Willielmus Dansey Armiger pro Maner. de parva Hereford. - 9. Edwardus Lingen Armiger pro prima parte Maner. de Burghill, io. Andreas Archer Arm pro Maner. de parvà Hereford. 11. Edmondus Fox Gen. pro Manerio de Leighton. 12. Ricardus Skirme Gen. pro Manerio de Uptone. 15. Robertus Barnaby Gen. pro Manerio de Laistres, 14. Georgius Wisham Gen. pro Manerio Tatston de la mer. 15. Ricardus Creswell Gen. pro Manerio de Tatstone de la mer, 16. Winifred Masters Vidua pro Manerio de Burghill. 17. Johannes Street Gen. pro Manerio de Gartertope. 18. Johannes Whitsonne Armiger pro Manerio de Burltonne. 19. Johannes Freemantle Gen. pro Manerio de Tillington. 20. Sylvanus Scorie pro Manerio de Risbrie, a ' 21. Thomas Bennet Gen. pro Manerio de Upton Hagarnell. 22. Ricardus Daux Gen. pro Manerio de Uptone, 23. Henricus Vaughan Armiger pro Manerio de Breadwarden, e-º Notitia Cambro-Britannica, penes his Grace the Duke of Beaufort at Badminton, No. XII. AC cc 2 - - 847 . APPENDIx, *, ~ No. XII, Regality of the Lordship Marcher of Brecknock exemplified. Mador's Bar. Anglie, • _æ* • a^ L O U C. preceptum fuit vice-comiti quod cum pluries mandaverat Rex dilecto et fideli suo Humfrido de Boum Comiti Herefordiæ et Essexiæ quod a quibusdam voluntariis districtionibus exactionibus indebitis 'variis inquietationibus dilecto et fideli Regis Rogero de Mortuo Mari et Lu- ciæ Uxori ejus et hominibus suis de partibus Breconiæ inferendis desistere et Ballivos suos desistere faceret ac idem Comes nihilominus mandata Regis prae dicta parvi-pendens prædictos Rogerum et Luciam et homines suos gravius quam , prius molestare et inquietare non desistit sicut ex gravi querela prædictorum Rogeri et Luciæ accepit; Rex scire faceret prædicto Comiti quod esset coram Rege a die S. Martini in XV Dies ubicunq, &c. prædictis Rogero et Luciæ inde responsurus et ulterius facturus et recepturus quod de consilioRegis inde duxerit ordinandum Rex. , Et Vice-comes mandavit quod scire fecit prædicto Comiti ad essendum coram Rege ad diem in Brevi contentum. Et modo venit prædictus comus et prædicti Rogerus et Lucia, et prædictus Comes defendit vim et injuriam quando &c. et dicit quod Consuetudo totius Walliæ est, quod in casibus ubi contentiones subortæ sunt inter Tenentes et Dominos suos qui habent curias suas et Libertates et qui habent Regalitatem quod ipsi domini habere debent primas Cognitiones querelarum et quod in Curia Regis placitare non debent de hujus- modi injuriis sibi impositis antiquam Curia eorum tenentibus de jure defecerit. Et dicit quod hujusmodi consuetudo ab antiquo in partibus Walliæ optenta est et petit Curiam suam. Dicit etiam quod paratus est stare recte in Curia sua de Brecknon per considerationem ejusdem Curiæ suæ et concedere Breve de Can- cellaria suâ in casu ubi breve jacet et ad illud breve respondere; et ubi breve non jacet, paratus est respondere ad querelas. Et prædicti Rogerus et Lucia non pos- sunt hoc dediscere [Ita in Rotulo] Ideo concessa est prædicto Comiti Curia sua prædicta, ita quod teneat rectum prædictis Rogero et Luciæ et celerem faciat jus- - . titiam. Et prædictus Comes præfixit i)iem prædictis Rogero et Luciæ apud *._. Brecknon die {Lunæ proximâ post tres septimanas S. Trinitatis proximo venturæ. Et dictum est prædictis Rogero et Luciæ quod uisi celeris justitia fiat eis in eadem Curia de Brecknoa quod tunc redeant, salvo jure Domini Regis, e * • * y hæredum \ í suorum, &e. Postea a die S. Michaelis in XV Dies anno XIX° venerunt prædictus Rogerus de Mortuo M. in propriâ persona et Lucia, uxor ejus per Simonem de - APPENDIX. 343 de Eton attornatum suum et praedictus Comes similiter et praedicti Rogerus et Lucia dicunt quod praedictus Comes defeciteis de recto in curià Suá et petunt quod.Justitia fiat eis hic, et datus est dies eis a die S. Martini in XV Dies ubicumq, &c. ad faciend- am et recipiendum, &c.—Mr. Madox says—“T here is no more here.” Pasch. Plac. coram Rege, 19 Edward I, Rot. 26, A. No. XIII. . Commission appointing Justices itinerant for the Town and Lordship of Brecknock, TENRICUS Octavus, &c. consanguineo nro Thome Duci Norff. et pdco . 11 mro Henr. Comit. Wigorn ac dilcis. et fidelib. nris Thome Cromwell Secretar. Johi Porte milit, uno Justic.” pror ad plita coram nobis tenend. de Banconro, Thome Inglefelde milit, uno Justic. mror. de coi. Banco Johi Dauncy Militi Johi Hales uno Baronu, nror. de Sceio nro Johi Russell Arm. Secretar. nro in Marchiar Wall. J ohi Pakynton Arm.....Holte Arm. Thome Bromley Arm. Willo. Walwyn Arm. Llewelyn ap Morgan ap David Gamme Arm. et Roberto Burgoyne Salutem Sciat. qd nos de circuspeccone et fidelitat, vris intime confident. constituim, et assignavim. vos quatuordecim tresdecim duodecim undecim decem movem oct. Septem sex quinq. quatuor tres vel duos vrum Quor. aliquem vrm. vos piat Johes Porte Thomas Inglefelde Johes Hales Johes Russell Johes Pakynton.......Holte Thoms Bromley Wille Walweyn et Roberto Burgoyne unu. - esse volum. Justiciar nros itinar. ad omia plita et querelas quascunq. infra Villam et Dnu mtm de Brekenok cu eor. membr. in South Wall. hac vice assignat, audiend, et trninand. Scam legem et cons. ptiu. illar et ad inquirend. p sacrim pbor, et legaliu. homin. de villa et Dnijs nros pdcis cu. eor. membr. tam infra. libtat. qui extra p quos rei veritas melius sciripofit et inquiri put sqm legem et consuetud. ptiu. illar, fuit faciend de Omnimod. libtat. franches jurisdictionib. et de quibuscuq . feloniis murdris transgress. extorcionib. oppssionib. contemptib. concelamentis ignoranc. offenc. mespriconib. cambiptijs ambidextrijs falsita- tibus decepconib. confederaconib. conspiraconib. forstallar, regratoriis alleganc. mauntenanc. retenconib. dampnis gravaminib. escap. ffelon. et excess. ac maleſcis quibuscuq. infra villam et Dn Ul Ill’il ſh pdict cu. membr. pdcis tam infra libtat. qm extra p quoscuq. et qualitcuq. fact. hit sive ppetrat, et ad inquirend etiam de - - - r quibuscuq. i. 349 APPENDIX. quibuscuq. artificib. switcrib. vel laboratorib, mendicant. et vacabundis hostilar, venditorib. victual. mensuris et ponderib, minime sufficient, ac de agentib, contra statut. inde edit. et de allegand. falsis conventiclis congregaconib. illicitis nec. non de libatur. pannor. infra dict vill et Dnu cu. eor, membr. ac de omnib. et, singulis officiar. svien, et ministr, nris, ibm ac de eor, gestu ac de quibuscuq. delictiset offens, tam nobis qm alijs peos vel eor, aliquem ante hee tempa ppetrat. acad inquirend, de quibuscuq. catallis felonu, fugitiv, utlagat. et dampnator. vel regnu. Anglie et Villam ac Dnu nºm pdictim cu. membr.pdicis abjuran, et de Wrecco maris ac bonis intestator. et Ffelonu. de se et ea occupant. escapijs felon. escaet Deodand. ward. maritag, relev. hiett. et aliis jurib. pris pmiss. aliqualit. tangen. nec non ad plita corone ad omnia et singla pmiss. Et de omib. et singlis Articlis et Circumstanc. pmiss. qualitcuq. concernentib. pleni. veritatem et ad felonias murdra transgress, extorc. oppssiones contemptus concelament. ignorant. negligent offens. mespricones cambiptias ambidextrias falsitat. de- cepcomes confedera, conspiracones forstallar. regrator, alleganc. mauntenent retencomes dampna gravamina escapia felonu, et excessus pdict ac omia alia pmiss, tam ad sect. nram qm aliar. quorcuq. coram vobis p nobis vel p seipsis conquiri vel psequi volent. audiend et timinand et ad omia record. pcess. et inditament coram quibcuq. Iusticiar, seu alijs ministris dict. will et Domij nri cu membr. pdict hita que nondum tminat. existunt et in Thesaurar. nro ibm re- manent coram vobis venire faciend. et ea. inspiciend. sdm. legem et consuetud. pcium illar. constituim. eciam vos quatuordecim tresdecim duodecim undecim decem movem oct. Septem sex quinq. Quatuor tres vel duos vrm. quor. aliquem vrm. vos pfat. Johes Port Thoma Inglefelde Johes Hales Johes Russel Johes Pakynton........ Holte Thomas Bromley Will Walweyn et Robts Burgoyne. unu esse volum. Justiciar. aros ad omia plita in villa et dmio nro pdict tam infra libtat qm extra ut de debito computi convenconib. erronijs Judicijs corrigend. et p qui- - buscuq, transgress, infra villam et domn pdict cu membris pdicis ppetrat. assidend. ac de assis nove dissie certificat. Assiar. mortis antecessoris attinct. et dealijsplitis quibuscuq. int. nos et ptem vel ptem et partem audiend et timinand sedm legem et cons. pciu. illar. pdictar. Dam, autem vobis quatuordecim tresdecim duodecim undecim decem movem oct. Septem sex quinq quatuor trib, vel duob, vrm quor. aliquem vrm vos pfat Johes Porte Thomas Inglefelde Johes Hales Johes Russell Johes Pakynton........Holte Thoma Bromley Wills Walweyn et Robts Burgoyne unu. esse volum, plenam ptem et auctoritat. et mandat, spiale qd si forsitan tenent mri et resident infra vill, et dmm. nym. pict cu. membris pdcis ppardona- conib. de pmiss aut aliquo pmissor, hend aut pdebit infra dma pdcap quoscuq. debit . APPENDIX. 350 debit. stalland, sive p aliquib. defaltis clameis libtatib, respectuand, autp transgress. mespris. oppssionib. extorconib. concelament. negligenc. et. offens. aut alijs causis et reb. quibuscuq, infra villam et dmn pdcm. cu. eor. membr. polict. ante hec tempa emsant in psent itine vro emgen, psequi et fines gemales aut pticular. face volunt et offerre ad pdonat. et estallament, respectuacones hmoi noie nro concedend. aceciam ad himoi fines cli eis faciend. et assidend. put vobis quatuor- decim tresdecim duodecim undecim decem novem oct. septem sex quinque quatuor trib, vel duob. vrm quor. aliquem vrm vos pfat. Johes Porte Thoma Inglefelde Johes Hales Johes Pakynton......Holte Thoma Bromley Wills Walweyn et Robts Burgoyne unu, esse volum, secam vras discrecomes fore videbit, faciend. et novit. expedire Dam. insuper cum nos ex advisamento et assensu consilii nri miseracordit. p stabilitate et coi utilitate subditor mror in villa et Dnio nro Brechonie cu, eor, membris sup, peticones Johis ap Lls Havarde genosi Thome Walter adtune Balli ville nre Brechon, pdge Medith ap Gwatkin genosi Thome ap Dd ap Morgan et Waltr ap Howel genosi tenene et fideliu. pcurator. nuncior. et attornat ex assensu et consensu onju. et singlor. tenen. burgen et residenc. tam ville qm tocius dini Brechon pdice cu membris pdics elcor. apunctuator et assignator, ac virtute et ptextu Irar, paten. suar, sub sigill. duor magnor, sigillor. autenticor, sigillat, quar.dat, estapud Brechon pdict, Xvi" die Octobr. anno regni nri vicesimo inde ostens, et restitut, ordinavim. concessim, direxim. confir- mavim. et decretavim. certas et divs. neccias ordinacones concessiones confir- macones et decret. p stabilitate et ministracone legis et justicie in villa et dio mro pdict cu, eor. membris put in eisdem ordinaconib. concess. et direconib. confir- maconib, et decretis sub signo nro manual. signat. et in cancellar. nra Anglic. remanen. pleni, contr, et recitatſ, vobis quatuordecim tredecim duodecim un- decim decem movem octo septem sex quinq. quatuor trib, vel duob. vrum quor, aliquem vrm vos pfat. Johes Porte Thoma Inglefelde Johes Russel Johes Pakynton.......Holte Thoma Bromley Wills Walweyn et Robs Burgoyne unu, esse volum. plenam potem et auctoritatem p psentes ad omia et singla in pdcis ordi- maconib. concess. direconib. confirmaconib et decretis tam p comodo nro et ministracone legis et justicie quip republica et coi utilitate door, subditor. mror. infra villam et Dnm nrm pdcm cu. membris expssa et recitat ac in dict cancellar. mra Anglie irrotat. et remanen nec non exemplificat et huic psenti commissioni annex. supvidend, scrutand. concedend, dirigend, faciend. exeguend, confirmand. recipiend. et reformand. sedim voluntat. et benevolentiam mras in omnib. et singlis pmissor. tangen. p. comodo nro edit fact. sive ppetrat, sub magno sigill, uro in Secio nro Brechon pdict, remanen, qm alit jux. sanas discrecomes wras put in . 4. Omih. as APPENDIX. omib. et singlis ordinaconib. concessionib. direconib: confirmaconib. et decretis. pdcis ex pte et voluntat, mºis fiend et pformand, plen, contr. Et quid fecit. in pmiss. vel in aliquo pmiss. scdm dict. discrecomes vras in singlis articlis pdcis €X: ptema faciend. et pformand. in deam cancellar. mram Anglie sub sigillis vris ctificet. et remittet. Assignavim, insup. vos piat. Thomam Ducem Norff. Henr. Comit. Wigorn. Thomm Cromwell Johem Porte Thomam. Inglefelde Johem Dauncy Johem Hales Johem Russel Johem Pakynton....Holte Thomm Bromley Willin Walweyn Lln ap Morgan et Robim Burgoyn tres vel duos vrum quor. aliquem vrm vos pfat John Porte Thoma Inglefelde Johes Hales Johes Russel Johes Pakynton....Holte Thoma Bromley Wills Walweyn et Robts Burgoyn un. esse volum. Justic. mros pacos ad inquirend p sacrimpbor. et legalm hoim de villa et dmio nro pict. cu, eor. membris pdcis tam infra librat qm extra p quos rei veritas melius Sciri potit et inquiri de quibuscuq. murdris feloniis raptu mulier. infra dict. villam et dau nrm cu, eor. membris pdcis tam infra libtat. Qm extra p quoscuq. et qualitcuq. ante hec tempora fact, sive ppetrat. et ad murdr felonias et raptu, pdict jux.legem et cons. poiu.pdictar. audiend. et timinand ac delinquent. in hac pte jux. eor. merita castigand, et puniend. Et ideo vobis mandam. quod ad dios dies et loca quos vos quatuordecim tresdecim duodecim. undecim decem movem octo Septem sex quinq. quatuor tres vel duos vrm Quor. aliquem vrm vos. pfat. Johes Porte Thomas Inglefelde Johes Russel Johes Pakyn- ton....Holte Thoma Bromley Wills Walweyn et Robts Burgoya unu. esse, volum. ad hoc pyideritis Inquisicones sup.pmiss, faciat et pmiss, omia et singla ut pdcm est audiatis et timietis ac modo debit. et effectualit. expleatis in forma. pdca fºur. inde qd. ad justic. ptinet scdm legem et cons. supdcas salvis nobis amc. et aliis ad nos spectan.; mandam, enim Vic. et Ballis nris peiu. illar. qd quilt eor. ad deos dies et loca quos vos quatuordecim tresdecim duodecim, undecim decem movem octo septem sex quinq. Quatuor tres vel duo vrm Guor, aliquem vrm vos pfat Johes Porte Thoma Inglefelde J ohes Russell Johes Pakyn- ton.... Holte Thoma Bromley Wills Walweyn et Robts Burgoyn unu, esse volum, eis scire faciatis venire faciatis coram vobis quatuordecim tresdecim duodecim undecim decem movem octo septem sex quinq. Quatuor trib. vel duob. vrum quor. aliquem vrm vos pfat. Johes Porte Thoma luglefelde Johes Russell Johes Pakynton....Holte Thoma Bromley Wills.Walweyn et Robts Burgoya unu, esse volum. tot et tales ‘pbos et legal. hoies de Ballis suis infra villam et dnu. mrm pdom cu. membris pdeis tam infra libtat qin extra p quos rei veritas melius Sciri potit et inquiri Dam. autem. unvsis et singlis tenent, et resident, ac aliis fidelib. et subditis nris infra villam et dum nrm pdem cu, eor. membr. pdcis tana APPENDIX. . 352 tam infra libtat qua extra tenore psenciu, firmit in mandat qd vobis et cuilt vrm. pmiss omib. ut singlis ut pdcm est faciend et exeguend. intendentes sive consu- •lentes respondentes et auxiliantes sint in omib. put decet. In cujus rei, &c. &c. Mº accordynly to their Custume and Lawe Pelamacon most be made in the markett xl days before the Commyssioners do sytte or ells they wol not attende. & kepe their Apparaunces and Maximes in their Lawe &c. The Copy and forme. of the Comaundement by precept for the Pclamacon to be made ensueth mutatis mutandis. * , Henry the eighte by the Grace of God Kyng of Englande and of France De- fender of the Feythe Lorde of Irelande and supreme hedde in Erth of the Churche of Englande; To our trusty and well beloved our Styward and Recey- vour of our Lordship and Town of Breknokpcell of our Lands called Bukynghm Landes in Suth Walys and to evy of them Gretynge. Whereas we have or- deigned oure Sessions enoyer to be holden in Qure Saide Lordship and Town by oure Justices by us thereunto assigned We woll and cherge you that inconty- nently upon the Sighe of these oure Lres ye do make hasty and open Pelamacons in all the placys within oure saide Lordship and towne where it shall be most nedefull and expedyent and to give knowlege after the auncyent Custome there to all oure liege People within the same oure said Lordship and Towne that oure Sessions of our Justices enoyer shall be holden at Breknok the day -of next comynge and that ye in the meane tyme do surcesse to take or make any man. of fyne or fynes upon any oure subgietts for any maner of felenyes or grete Trespasses unto the saide Day before rehersed and ...that ye and evy of you psonally appiere and be at oure saide Sessions the saide Day for the Certificat and Returne of this oure precept and the rather because ye be oure Officers there for the good Order of the same and that ye ſayle not herof as ye tendre our pleasure at your ferther pyllys that thereby may en- sue. Yeven &c. * - - fe . N. B. The original of this document as well as the next in this appendix is. apreserved among the records remaining in the Alienation office in Somerset house. T} d d No. XIV. 283 APPENDIX. ºf rRNRY the eighth by the Grace of God Kyng of Englande and of Fraunce A defender of the faith lorde of Irelande and on herth Supreme hed of the church of Inglande. To all archebisshoppys bisshoppis dukys merquesses erles ba- rons abbots &c, and all other subgetts gretyng knowe you that the humble pe- ficon to us and to our councell by our tennts and inhitunts of our town lordship domynyon and mane of Breknok in South-Walis heretofore made we (by the advyce of or, said councell) have ordeyned and decreed and to the said our tennts and inhitunts graunted and by thes our lres graunt ratifie and confirm all and evy article underwrytten that is to say that if hereafter any pson be or shall be at- attached win the Saide towne lordship dominion or mane of Breknok for suspe- cyon of murder or other felonie that evy such psome so taken may be letten to bayle upon sufficient suerties to be bounded by recognisunce or otherwise....(taken) of record in the chauncerie ther and in none other place that the same psone so at- tached shall psonal appere at the next sessions or other place within the said towne lordship domynyon or mane where such psons so attached have hertofore usyd to appere and ther to be delyved and ordered accordyng unto the lawe and the reasonable customes in that place heretofore usyd also if eny psome or psones beyng suertie or bounde for the apparaunce of any felone in or at the sessions or at the court there at a certeyn daye if the said suerties bryng the said felone for 3& whome they where so bounden to warde before the day that they ar bounden to bryng the same felone to his apperunce that then such suerties to be discharged of ther saide bonde And if eny psone be attached for suertye of peace that the same psomes upon sufficient suertie founde after the lawe and custome ther for kepyng of the peace to be set at libtie And if eny baretors or eny Sedycyouse or mysordered psones for brekyng of the peace confedacys or other actes against the lawe be attachyd yf thei fynde sufficient suertie for ther good aberyn be sett at libtie Of ells to remayn in warde Also if eny officers Of officer do surmyse any forfaytt. upon any psone or psones for brekyng of the peace or of aberyng or of any other forfayte upon the said surmyse that the said officers shall make no distrayne of goods nor cattalls for levying of the said forfait. upon the said surmyse nor the body of the psone or psones that is surmitted to offend be comytted to prysome yf he or they can fynde eny sufficient maympryse untyll a tryall of the said surmysse be had be XII men confession of the ptie defaulte of the ptie or for lacke 2 APPENDIx, 334 ſacke of answere of the pie And in case the said ptie put hym to the tryall of xrï men that then the stuard or lyeutennts there shall upon evy of their first othes make an indyfferent panell and that then the ptie upon whome such for- fayture is psented shall have therunto no chalenge. Chalenges callydł WXY HER also dyvse chalenges hath heretofore ben usyd. verale and other. } WW within the said lordship for the delaye of the true tryall of the said offendors whereof one a principall chalenge is that one of the jurye ys of kynne to the ptie plaintyff or defendt Another principall chalenge called vetate otherwise called olde rancorrous malice that the jurrie or oone of his auncestors within the fourth degree of mariage hath murdred or slayne one of the pl. or def, within the Ivth degre of mariage to eny of them. It is decreed by oure said sovayn lord and his said councell that the said chalenges shall not be allow- able oonles the ptie so chalenged be by true lyne within the fourth degree of consanguynitie to eny of the said pties And as to the said chalenge called vetate it is ordered that the said chalenge shall not be allowable onles the ptie so cha- lengyd have murdered the kynnysmen of the ptie so chalengyd within the Ivth degree of consanguynitie as is aforesaid within x yers next and immediatly before the said chalenge It is also ordered that other causis of chalenges that may induce corrupt favor shalbe good cause of chalenge and none other chalenge except on. of thes, thre aforesaid chalenges shalbe allowable by as in the same record amongst other ys more playnly expressyd. - - - tem it is ordeyned and decreed and by the tennts and inhabytaunts graunted that estallements by sufficient suertye shall be made for payment to our said sovayne lorde of and for the some of MMM.D.cccLiv mrke dim. III: Ivº ob. q of and for the rents terms tallages and dutyes due by the said tennts and inhitunts to our said sovaygn lorde and behynde and not payed provable by the recorde before and at the feast of Saynt Michael tharkchangell the xx yere of the reign of our saidsovayn lorde and the same some to be contentyd and payed upon good and sufficient suerties by re- cognisauncs to be taken and made in the eschequer of Breknok or before the justice in heire beyng psent in man. and forme ſolowyng at the usuall fests or feyres to be yerely payed that is to say at the natyvyte of Seynt John Baptist decollacon of Seynt John Baptist and Seynt Leopard by evyn porcons that is to wytt at evy fayre of the said three cºx mres di xv.111 d ob. di q' And in lyke man, and forme yerely from faire to faire and from yere to yere untyll the said • * 3ome of MMM.D.cccſ. Iv. mic di. 111 Ivº ob. q. be fully contented and payed unto - {}{}}. D d d 2 335 APPENDIx. - - - bu r’sayd sovayne lorde and his heyres, the first payment thereof to begynne at the feast of Saint Leonard the which shall be in the yere fro, the incarnacon of our lord Jhus Crist MDxxxv provyded always that it shall be lawfull to the said. tennts in oure saide sovaygn lordes behalf after the due ordre of the lawe to sewe tecov. and to do all and evy thynge for the leveying and reysing of all and evy some of money and dette pcell of the said some of MMM.D.cccLiv mrc di. III" Iva ob. q, without favour and withontreygour the rather because of our said sovayne förds most gracyous favorable estallements aforesaid pryded also that notwithstand- yng the forsaid estallements of the said some above rehersyd. the said tennts and inhitaunts and evy of theym shall contynually content and pay unto our said, sovayn lord duely and truely their rent and other dueties comyng and growyng from the said feast of seynt Mychell tharchangell the said xxti yere at all tyme and tymes due and to be due withoute any delay vexacon or trouble or elles to be oute of our said sovaign lord’s favour and his most honorable counsayle at all tymes, in that pries isyd. - ºc.” "w . Itm it iš decreed and agreed by our said Sovayne Lord and by the advyse of his councell that the said tennts and inhitaunts and subgetts shall be bounden with substancyall suerties by recognisunces in the eschequyer within the castell of Breknok or before the justice of enheire or other the kyngs comission. at there beyng ther to content and pay unto his said highnes and to his heirs the said SOrme’ of MMM.Dece. Liv mrke dim. HI" Ivº ob, q, accordyng to the estallments before remembred And before the said recognisinces taken a grunte sealed of his genall and fire pdon under his greate seale there remaynyng be made and dely ved unto the said tennts in as large wise mane and forme in evy thynge and accordynly as apperth by the records graunted then to be pardoned remyfed and respyted: after the man. and flourme of the graunte of MM mrcs for the countrey and Lx mr.cs for the towne for the redempcon and dyssolvyng of the greate sessions in oyer in the tymes of the reignes of the kyngs noble pgenitos, that is to saye, kyng Henry the vº the vite yere of his reigne kyng Henry the vº the xvi II* yere of his reigne kyng Henry the virt the xx111° yere of his reign and our sovayn e lorde that nów ys the x1.” yere of his reign, as by the records thereof more at large doth appier that is to wytt at and upon the pdoñs and graunts made and grunted at the supplicacons of the tennts and inhabitaunts there by the comission. in oyer there at sondry tymes beyng grunted for the said soms of M M mrcs for the tountrey and Lx mrcs for the toune in lyke fourme and in non. otherwise of and for evy thyng done and comytted accordyngly to the same pdones byfore and hereaft and to be distrayned and otherwise punyshid accordyng to the lawes in APPENDIX. 336, to the said feasts of seynt Michell tharchangell the said xx...yere of our said: sovayne lords reign, And furthermore our said sovayne lord of his most vertuous goodness ys pleasyd and by the advyce of his said councell hath decreed and grunted that among other the graunte of his said pilone to the said tennts and inhitaunts also made be of and for all man. of felonyes and for the utlagaryes of the same comytted and done before and at the feast of seynt Michell tharch-. ungeil the said xxº yere of the kyng's said reign in the man. folowyng, that is to say, every felon that wyll submytte hym self unto the lawe makyng his ſyne. for x1 after the custome of the countrey ther and to be bounde with good suer- ties for his good abearyng and behavor from thensforth accordyngly and aft. the fourme of the records their remaynyng all tresons murders rapes and the utlaryes for the same oonly except and resved. And förasmoch as the tennts and inhitaunts shall be bounde by recognisaunce to content and pay MDxxxv.11 mrs. di. Iv"q. for the said arrerages of the rents and fermes and other dutyes due among them selfs only and chargyed in the accompts of the kyng's receyvos ther due behynde and not payed at the said feste of saynt Michell tharkaungell the said xxºyere as in the same accompts among other more playnly is expressyd. over and besyd the some of MMcCoxvi.1 mres III tº ob q of and for tallage of knowlege the fyne for the redempcon of the said greate sessions and the said casualties of the cots oure said sovayne lord ys pleasyd and by the advyce of the said councele hath grunted and decreed that in the said paon of our sayd sovayne lord to the said tennts and inhitaunts to be made shalbe playnly expressyd that where eerteyne of the tennts and inhitaunts of his towne lordship dominion and man. of Breknok in dett or dettos of eny rents ferms and other duties peell of the saide some MDxxxv.11 mrs di. Iv" q. be not pdoned in no wyse by the said pdone and in Bone otherwise oonley but to have favorable dayes of payment of their said detts in like fourme and man. as his most gracyous highness hath grunted unto them all but whatsoev. agreement among themselfs peasyble and lovyngly to be made his most gracy.ouse highnes is contente so that his poore subgetts dettos be not rygouresly handlyd and dealed with by the extremite of his lawes because his most geyous extent is in consyderacon of povertie and of the grete some which they be bounde to pay to have reasonable helpe and relyve there where of ryght it is dutie and owyng ryghtfully and the parties sufficient to paye at reasonable dayes for of theym selfs wherfor oure said sovayne and his most honorable councell consyderyng ferthermore that rents ferms and 6ther duties charged in thaccomps ever before tyme passed were never pdoned at nor upon eny redempcom before justice in oyer before the tyme wherfor it is decreed that it shall not be 357. APPENDIX. takyn for a psydent but for oonly this tyme the kyng our said sovayne ys pleaside and geyously disposed to shewe his most good and gey ouse favor to his poor sub-.. getts in all the pmssis. . - - . - - - -: Itm it is ordered and decreed for a remedy that herafter the arrerages of the- pmyssys due or to be due to our said sovaygn shall not encrease yerely as it hath. done ther in tymes passyd pyable by the records and all because the officers to whome the pcepts be directyd by the cose of theschequyer ther ben but to distrayne for the rents fermes and duties and to bryng the distres in to the castell and in defaults of distresses to bryng in the bodyes for the said rents. ferms and other duities due and owing from tyme to tyme and though the pcept ben made and delyved upon penalties yet by the psidents yt apperith but neclygente and delayous in the levy thereof because that the same offic. be not. accomtably nor have not usyd to be accomptants that as many of the saide officers as shall be thought nedefull and requisite to be appoyntyd and orderyd to be officers accomptables the rather in avoydyng such urgent arrerages to happe and . to growe hereafter and thoise to be appoyntyd made and deputyd by the kyng our sovaign lord's receyvour ther for the tyme beying be cause espially and the rather the same receyvor by whom they or eny of the same offic. accomptable shall be named and appoyntyd as is aforesaid upon the detminacons of every their accompts herde and detmined before and by the kyng's auditor or auditos there - for the tyme beyng the same receyvor shall answere and be charged with all such some and somes of money detmined upon the accompts of every such officer accomptable at all tymes as lyke receyvor ben in other lordships in Walys ther where the same receyvor doth name and appoynt thofficers accomptable hym self wherefore the more part or in few placs dependith none arrerages and all by thoccasyon that the receyvor nameth and deputeth the officers ministers accompt- ables yerely at his parell which officers accoumptaunts for their labour busynesses in excysyng of their said offices ben to have in stipend by waye of reward one peny. by the day for doyng and excysyng their offices truly and diligently and with- oute extorcon and brybery And also that such officers to be accomptable within their sevall romes placys and circuite or pcyncte havyng their sevail stipends yerely hereafter to: be ordered appoynted called and settylled unto their seval offices accomptables upon and after the certyſycate of comissions by comission' to be made and directyd unto such discrete psones as shall best please the kyng's said highnes and his most honorable councell to appoynte in that behalf amongst other thyngs circuspectly to examyn Vyewe and serche aswell the officers offices ſomes peincts for the officers to be accomtables and what stipend - - and APPENDIX. - - 358 and how moch shall be convenyent yerely for theym and evy of theym the same cirtyficate with the said comission to be retorned to and before the genall surveyor of the kyng's lands in the prynces councell chamber at Westm. And thereupon the same genall surveyor shall order and detmyne evy thing most requysite con- cernyng the pmisses and evy pte thereof accordyng to their discrecons. Also it is decreed ferthermore that where that Henry Earle of Worcestre beyng stuard of º the said lordship of Breknok by the letters patents of oure said sovaynge lorde for time of hys lyff And also by the same Irs patents hath full power and auctoritie to name make and appoynte all officers within the said town, lordship, domynyon * and mans which belongyd and apperteyned to the kyng's said highnes to make gyve and appoynte before the grunte of the said Ires patents made to the said erle in mane and forme forsaid yt is decreed that the same erle be requested and do suffre by order of the kyng's said highness and his most honorable counsale for the kyngs most pfit the said offics without their officys accomptable to be appoyntyd named and made by the kyngs receyvor ther for the tyme beyng for • the causes aboverehersed orells the said erle to have sufficient psones within the said lordship bound to the kyng's said highnes in theschequer by recognysaunces to content and pay furthwith all such somes of money detmined upon the accompts taken by the said auditor of evy officer accomptable named and appoynted by the said erle or from thensforth to be appoynted and named by the same erle or by his officers and lyeutents ther for the tyme beyng pyided alway that the said officers rand evy of theym accomptables have enjoye and excise their offices in evy other ºthyng in lyke man, as yt appeynyth and belongyth unto theym and evy of theym laufully and accordyngly as they myght laufully before that those offices were accomptably only excepte all such evyll use and custome which ben and shall be taken awaye put oute avoyded and admulled by these psent ordynn.cs decrees and direccons. . . . . Also the kyng oure said sovaynge - forde by the advyce of his said counsaye is pleasid and agreed and by his ires patents to confirme and ratifie that all the ordinaces and other thyngs comprysed and conteyned in the ordennces and co- mundements made by indenture between the most excellent prynce of most noble memorye kyng Henry the v1.1° and the late duke of Bukynghm and all other lorde mchis in Southwalys for the emendement and avaunsement of justice and good rule so that the same ordinnes shall contynue stande and abyde in their full force and effecte and to be put in due execucon in all poynts uppon a greate some of money to be forfayte to the kyng's highues as heaft. folowyth, that is to ºxytt, that all officers of the said towne lordshi p domynyon and man. of Breknok º .” 359 APPENDIX. be bounden with sufficient suerties in convenient somes and all tennts and inha. bitunts ordered upon convenyent ſynes or ameyaments to be forfayted to endever them selfs to pſourme and execute truly and endescrently the lawys and to obsve and kepe the good customes and that felons and other greate trespassós and offenders be corrected and punyshed after the lawe accordyng to ther demytes and that the said tennts and inhabitunts shall be of good govnaunces and obedyent unto our said sovaygn lorde the kyng also the said tennts and inhabitunts shall not unlawfully dystrayn nor take dystresses in other countreys and lordships and he that so doth shall be taken and reputed as a felon and that duely pved the offender to be sente into the countrey wher the offens was don ther to answer and to be punyshed accordyng to the lawe also yf any pson for dowte of pomyshmente. in his owne countrey flee to the sayd towne or lordship of Breknok to be socoured and meynteyned and that certyfyed to the oftycers of the same lordship of Brek- nok by the officers of the other cuntrey that then the officers of the said lordship of Brekmok upon such certificate incontynent shall put the same felon or other. offender so long fled out of the countrey when he offendyd in saufe kepyng and then to send the same felon or other offender to the countrey from whens he cam or ells within vi weksafter to gyve such punysshment in the said towne or lordship of Breknok to the same offender as he hath desved also that no officer fennt nor inhabitunts in the said toune or lordship do favor succur or meynteign any outlaw or felon notoriously knowen nor releve hym or theym with any vytale drynkmoney me lodgyng and if eny of the said officers tennis or inhabitunts shall at eny tyme herafter to the contrary that well and truely pyed shallbe accept as a felon Also yſ eny pson or psones be robbed and they do make fresh suete and do. make the tracke unto the said lordship of Brekmok than the said officers tennts and inhabitaunts and resyaunts shall make no stoppache nor resystunce but shall succur and helpe those psones folowyng the said tracke as ſerforth as the said lordship of Brekmok do strache and that non tennt inhabitant or resyaunte shall disclaime when they shall be impleded in any accon agaynst theym in the cote if he be knowyn as a tennt inhabitunt or resyaunte also the stuardeleyeutennts and other officers shall cause all tennts inhitaunts and resyaunts to bynde theym selfs by composicon after and accordyng to the auncyent indentur to evy lordeshipp. * marchers nexteadjoyunte Also the said stuard and officers shall cause to be put all men under good suertie and sufficient for their good abearyng and apperunces to answere to the kynge and to ptie also the said stuard and the offyes yf any affray be made or man hurte and in geoberdie of lyef or murdre incontynently the seyd of yes do attache the offenders and all the accessaries and theym to puttein warde there APPENDIX. ,- - 360 there to remayn woute bayle or maynpryce tyll yt be tryed accordynly to the offencys asmoche thereof as shall conene murdre or felony and the other to be lett at libtie upon suffycyente Suertie tyll yt shall be tryed as in other ordennces above rehercyd. - . . - - Farthermore it is ordeyned and decreed that the stuard and any other officer for any excysyng and occupying of their offices by their deputies lyeutennts or other shall appoynt depute and name their deputies of the discrete and most substan- cyall inhitants which be resydente win the said lordship beying homeste discrete - and sufficient to occupye such offyces duryng the tyme that the same stuarde and other the saide officers shall contynue and stande the kyng's officers there and that * no man. stranger of other countries adjoynants and beyng officers and havyng auctoritie there excepte that they wyll dwelle and inhit theym selfs there win the lordship of Breknok duryng the tyme that he or they shall be deputies except oonly men lerned in the lawe of Englande upon the penaltie of xi to be forfeyte evy moneth by hym that makyth his depute in any other man. And upon the penaltie of xx; to be forfeyte evy moneth by hym beyng a stranger and not inhytyng within the said lordship of Breknok the oone half of evy such forfaytur. to be had unto the kyng oure saide sovayn lord’s use and the other half thereof. unto the use of hym that wyll sue the ptie that shall breke the ordynnces And that evy pson that wyll sue in that ptie have an accon of dette of the aforesaid for- fayture and such pcess, in the same accon to be had as in accon of dette at the comon lawe or after the custome of the countrey wherit shall happyn to be sued and that the defendunts therin be not admitted nor suffred to waige their lawe And this ordennce to be kepte and contynucd for a spyall remedy the soner by these ordents to avoyde greate favor extorcon brybery and poſlyng and also - revengyd of old malice and rauncurre as well in their owne causes as other their kynnesmen lovers and frends and also some tymes rewards and by cause that the kyng's people his subjetts by officers strangers shall not be so covenient nor can- not be so kyndly good and endifferently charitably and so lovyngly knowyn entreatyd by strangers officers as by one neyghburre with another accordyngly as the justices consvatos of the peace in evy shire in Englande ben appoynted and made in none therwise of noneother psons but of such sufficient psons which ben . resydente within the said shire * grete noble lords and men lernyd in the comon N, - - lawe pressive but their local knowledge of the cha- racters or the ability of their neighbours is fre- - quently of great advantage to the due adminis- may err, may be corrupted, and sometimes are º tration of public justice. - - iſ, e. © * The subjects of this realm will do well to weigh this observation maturely; it is an admira- ble, a rational and a politic position. Magistrates 301 APPENDIX. lawe except And also for asmoch as yt hath ben comonly spoken and said that grete rewards have ben taken to make strangers deputie' officers to the entente to be in auctoritie it is requisite and good for endifferent justice this article to be remembred. ... ' - *- Also it is ordered and decreed that evy accusement and psentment made and to be made by eny of the offices of or for any murder felonyes rapes or eny other greate trespasses and offenses to be except and taken but only as a evydence and that the lyf of eny pson or psones shall not be put in jeberdy or tryed upon such accusements or to be made by any officer oonies yt be founde and psented by the othes of x11 men or more charged to inquere of the same after the ordre and forme of the lawe Also if any bande be taken by pmyse hand or otherwise by any officer and psentyd or not psentyd yt in lykewise to be voyde and of none effecte but oonly for an evydence wherfor it is decreed as is aforesaid that the bands to be takyn herafter shall be taken in the Chuncery there or ells in the cots where the officers have auctorite so to do in avoydyng of grete and apparunte pjure and of many other myschyſts Also in avoydyng of maney enormyts and myschefs it is decreed and ordeyned that yf herafter any pson be abjured upon evy such ab- juracon the felon to be kepte in saufegard in prysone by the space of three yers - ensuyngly next after the said abjuracon by enprysonament and to lyve there upon his owne or of his frends if they have whereof or ells at the charytable almes of the good people in lyke man. as the statute made for offenders in parkes Westm. le pme the xx III chapitre and at the thrydde yeres end as there is pyided to be ab- - jured because it is but a defleryng of the tyme moche requysite in avoyding of murdurs felones robberies and many other grete mysdemenos and offencs be occacon that the alſuracons in Walys ys no ferther distaunce but to the next adjoynnie /orde marchar and there abydyng alwaye to do myscheff robbe and stele Also it is decreed that yf eny officer or other pson or psons of what state degre or condicon that he be not oonly that to do take levey or gather ony man. of comortha within the lordship of Brekmok of many the kyng's subgetts tennts or inhitunts there for any cause that is to saye ony best shepe torne (q.) or by settyng of ale meath or eny man. other goods and cattalis levyed by wey of Cormortha the people is charite and almes to the church and highways oonly except withoute license obteyned upon good consideracons by byll subscribed by the stuard auditre receyvor joyntly but also that no pson nor psones shall retayne nor be retayned within the said lordship to any pson but the kyng or sovayne lorde or to such his master as he shall do unto dayly and manuall swice upon the penaltie of x." to be forfaitt at evy tyme by the taker and the gever or reteynor or psones retayned xx evy - - - - - ‘. . . tyme - - - - f -- .#7 ~ - - APPENDIX. 362 tyme the oone half therof to thuse of our said sovayne lord the kyng and the other half of evy such forfaetur. unto thuse of hym that wyll sue the pties that so shall breke the said ordennes and ony psone that woll sue to have an accon of dette in lyke man as is above rehersyda Comorſha to and for the mariage of a mannes daughter. or for the burnyng of his house O?” for a. fyne ŽO Öe made to the kyng which .#yne is not made for murder felonye brekyng of castell or pson ne rape only excepted Also if any officer ther for malice comytte eny pson to the castell ther for fielonie tres- passe forfayture or for eny other offence suspycyons of and for murdre and felonie oonly except if he so comyttyd be therof acquited lawfully that then the same officer shall pay the suyte of the prysoner and his costs by reason of his wrong- full impsonament Also if any psome bryng or comence apeale of murdre felonie or rape agaynst divse psones SOIſle of theym as pryncypalls and the other as accessaries that than the accessaries be lette to bayle tyll the pryncypalls by attaynt by verdite or by pcess of lawe And if the appellant bryng or comence any such apeale agaynst two or mor psones as principalls and them or some of them do apper that then the said appellant at the next courte folow.yng do sue agaynst them that do appere with effecte so that pryncipalls be attaynt by the ordre of the lawe or ells they to be dismyssed. Also that no man shall be retorned by any officer there in jurre or pannell in tryall upon any felone there unlesse that he be a tennte havyng lands in freeholde within the said lordship Also that no man shall be of counsayle with eny felonye at the cote when such felon is in reigning or arrayned there oonles that he may dispende in lands and tenements in free holde by the yere x L. and if the felon be founde guyltie and caste of the felonie that then the same psone counsaillor to forfayte to the kyng's highnes all his lands goods and cattels or ells to make fyne and ransom for his greate offence at oure said sovayn lord's pleasure. Also our saide sovayne lorde the kyng is pleasyd and also it is decreed that duryng the lyff of our said sovayn g lorde whose lyffe almyghtiye ihu contynue and psve that the daungerous passages and highwayes thorough and by all his forests of Breknok be fire fromhensforth to passe and to repasse for all people aswell of his subgetts as strangers under leege wout paying of emy man. of custome fºyne ran- some or eny other thyng And where the fermos of the said forests be charged yerely in their accomptes amongst other with certeyn ferme for the said passage and highwayes our said sovayn ys pleasyd and also it is ordered that aftet the certy ſycatt upon the comyssion before remembred be retoned before the genal surveyos of the hands of our said sovayn lorde wherby the certeyn some and porcon of the said - . ferme E e e 2 363 APPENDIX, ferme by the view examinacon and serche made by the said comissions etified and retoned shall and may appier as it is abovere hersyd that the auditos for the tyme beyng be ordered by the said genall surveyos to allowe yerely unto the said fermos the said some and porcon cyfyed as is aforesaid and if the said fermos or eny oth ep i pson or psons distobe or take eny thyng of the pasagers at any tyme and that trueiy - pved then he or they so doyng to be accepted and taken as a fielon Also the said comissions with the Said comission do certyfye by serche examinacon and viewe of the charters and grunts of the towne and lodship of Breknok and thereupon to ctifye what maters and thyngs win the same conteyned shall be nedefull to be confirmed Or gruntyd by a newe grunte under the seale of Oure said sovayne lorde there oute of his chauncy and also to be examyned and certyfyed yf a Engiyssman were at- torney in the kyng's cots there for the kyng's highnes what it shulde offit the kyng y y so . J -- 3 sº p w 9, by reason therof otherwise then yt is nowe and whern to be certyfyed playnly in every thing in the said certyfirat to be retonyd as ys aforesaid Also for asmuch as grete somes of despate arrerages have grown and growyth of and upon the forfaytures of apparancs and good aberyngs forfaited by the tennts inhitaunts and resiaunts there evy pson bounde in x, thet is to Saye cº for apparunce and c for good abearyng and when it yS forfaity d almost mothyng levyd thereof be cause the offender hath little or mothyng and when ther is noth- yng thereof to be leveyed a smale remedy in the evyll example of justice but rather eftsones boldnes of mysdoers And also for asnoch as the genaltie of the power people there do applye them selfs dylygently in husbondry labores tyliage and plowyng more than hath be seen there syth the tyme of eny man is memorie now lyvyng and also ther be not so many unyvsall mysdoers and offenders as in tymes passyd hath ben oure said sovayne lorde is pleasyd and also it ys decreed for the comfort of his good people and his tennts inhabitunts and resiants so endeveryng theym selfs in and abought tyllage that the genall somes of and for good abearyng and apparancs of and for evy pson fyndyng convenient suerties therfor to be but iv) that is to saye w/ for the good aberyng and w/ for apparunes pvided always that evy such pson or psones that be or shall be notoryously knowyn offenders and mysdoers be boundem with convenyent Suerties for their apparunes and good a bearyng in as great somes as shall be thought requysite by the discreeon of the officers there for the tyme beyng havyng the auctorite to take such bonds by re- cognisunces or otherwise, - * - his said councell hath decreed that the ordenncs decrees and dyreccons aforesaid hall be from hensforth holy obsved and kepte and also entred registred and re- corded not only to remayn in the kyngs rolls of his chancy but also in the prynces § chambre * Also oure said sovaygne lorde is pleasyd and by his highness and the advyce of APPENDIX. 364 chambre at Westm, and also in the eschequeyr wt in the castell of Breknok suffi- ciently wrytten for a ppetuall memoriepvided alwaye notwithstandyngony grunts ordennces decrees or direccons made and beforen wryttyn that the power and auctorites of the justice in oyer when they shall be comission, and resorte unto the said lordshipp of Breknok for the due mynystracon of justice not to be abrygged mynyshed not letty'd but that the same justicesin oyer may and shall do and execute in evy thyng as appteyneth to justices in oyer thiese forsayd ordennces orany thyng therein conteyned in any wise notwithstandyng pyided also that if at any tyme here- after any ambiguyties or doubtes shall fortune to aryse upon the intptacon of any article comprysed or conteyned in thyse psente ordennces decrees and direccons that then the same doubte and ambyguyte to be opened intpted and declared by the kyng oure sovayne lorde and his moste honorable counsayll and that the said tennt inhitunts resyaunts and subgetts shall stande to the intptacon and decaracon so by oure said sovayne lorde and his most honorable counsayle to be made intpted and declared.* - - - —esse— No. XVI. - List of the Sheriffs for the County of Brecknock. QIR William Vaughan of Porth- . J aml, knt. - - 1540 Sir Watkin Herbert of Crickhowel, Knt. * . Sir John Price of the Priory, Knt. Lewis Gwyn of Gwenffrwd, Esq. 1550 Sir Roger Waughan of Talgarth, Knt 1651 Richard Herbert, a 2d time, Esq. 1552 John Lloyd of Blåntowy 1553 Andrew Wynter of Brecon 1554. William John Prosser of Gaer 1555 T. Havard of Pontwylym, a 2d time 1541 1542 1543 Thos. Havard of Cwrt-Sion Young 1556 Thomas Sollers of Porthaml issa 1544 Richard Herbert of Aberystwith 1557 Richard Vaughan of Crickhowel 1543 William Awbrey of Cantreff, Dr. 1558 Edward Games of Newton 1546 W. Herbert of Crickhowel, Esq. 1559 John Games of Aberbrän 1647 Christopher Waughan of Tretower 1560 Lewis Gwyn of Gwenffrwd 1561 I 562 1548 Edward Herbert of Crickhowel William John Prosser, a 2d time 1349 Thomas Havard of Pontwylym * This ordinance as well as the commission to the justices itinerant, though there is no date to either, must have issued about 1533 or 1584, as both of them recite a former ordinance of 20 H, 8. William Games of Aberbrän - 1563 and one of the installments of the payment to the king herementioned is appointed to be made in 365 APPENDIX. 1563 James Gomond of Brecon 1564 Richard Price of the Priory 1565 Lewis Gunter of Gilston 1566 Edward Herbert of Crickhowel 1667 William Watkins of Llangorse 1568 James Gomond, a 2d time 1569 William Games of Aberbrän, ditto 157 O Richard Price, ditto - •. 1571 Charles Walcott, senior, of Llanfair in Builth - . John Awbrey of Abercynrig. Charles Awbrey of Cantreff John Games of Newton Watkin Lloyd of Treweren, in Devynnock Wm. Games of Aberbrän, 3d time Thomas Vaughan of Peytyn gwin Thomas Games of Aberbrän Chas. Walcott of Llanfair in Builth Sir Hen. Jones of Abermarlas, Knt. Hugh Powel of Tal y llyn, Esq. Tho. Prees William of Ystrady flin Sir Edward Awbrey of Tredom- men, Knt. .* Roger Vaughan of Clyro, Esq. Gregory Price of the Priory John Awbrey of Abercymrig John Games of Newton - William Watkins of Llangorse Sir Edward Awbrey, a 2d time Wm. Vaughan of Tretower, Esq. John Walbeoff of Llanhamlach Walter Prosser of Trefecca Gregory Price, a 2d time Roger Vaughan, do. 1572 } 573 . 1574. ió75 ió76 i 577 1578 1579 # 580 H 58 i # 589 1583 1584. 1585 # 586 1587 # 588 589 # 590 1591 1592 1593 1594 1595 William Watkins of Llangorse 1596 John Games of Newton, 2d time 1597 Richard Herbert of Penkelley 1598 Charles Walcott the younger 1619 1614 Ł615 1616 1621 1629 1697 , 1698 1629 1631 1599 Sir Edward Awbrey, 3d time 1600 Sir John Games of Newton, Knt. 1601 Wm. Watkins of Llangorse, Esq. 1602 Roger Williams of Parc ar Irvon 1603 Howel Gwynne of Trecastle 1604 John Games of Buckland 1605 Richard Herbert, 2d time 1606 Lodowick Lewis of Trewalter 1607 Sir Wm.Awbrey of Tredommen, Kt. 1608 John Games of Aberbrän, Esq. 1609 John Stedman of Ystrady fin 1610 Thomas Powel of Talyllyn 1611 Rees Williams of Devynock - William Rumsey of Crickhowel Sir Henry Williams of Gwerny. fed, Knt. - Thomas Price of the Priory, Esq. H. Gwynne of Trecastle, 2d time Morgan Awbrey of Glyntawe Edward Williams of Llangattoock William Lewis of Llangorse 8 Blainch Parry of Llandeſailog tre'r graig John Williams of Parc ar. Irvon Charles Vaughan of Tretower John Maddocks of Llanfrynach 1623 Edward Games of Newton 1694 Watkin Vaughan of Merthyr 1625 Richard Games of Penderin 1626 Sir Henry Williams of Gwerny- fed, Bart. - - - J ohn Walbeoff of Llanhamlach, Esq Thomas Boulcott of Brecon Thomas Gwynne of Hay castle John Stedman of Dôly gaer John Jeffreys of Abercynrig Howel Gwynne of Ty mawr in Builth - - ... " . John Lewis of Frwdgrech . . . . 1634 1613 1617 1618 1619 1620 1630 -* 1632 1633 APPENDIX. 366 ió34 John Herbert of Crickhowel . 1635 Charles Waughan of Tretower 1636 Sir William Lewis of Llangorse, Bart. * 1637 David Gwynne of Glanbrán, Esq. 1638 Meredith Lewis of Pennant - 1639. Henry Williams of Caebalva 1640 Edward Lewis of Llangattock 1641 John Herbert of Crickhowel 1642 John Herbert of Crickhowel 1643 Lewis Lloyd of Wernos in Crick- - - adarn - - 1644. Howel Gwynne of Glanbrån 1645 Howel Gwynne of Glanbrån 1646 Roger Vaughan of Trephillip 1647 Edward Games of Buckland 1648 Charles Walbeoff of Llanhamlach 1649 William Watkins of Shephouse 1650 Thomas Watkins of Llanigon 1651 William Jones of Coity - 1662 Roger Games of Tregare 1653 John Williams of Cwmduy 1654 Meredith Lewis of Pennant, 2d time 1655 William Morgan of Dderw 1656 Thomas Powel of Maesmawr 1657 Hoo Games of Newton 1658 Thomas Gunter of Gilston 1659 Edward Williams of Gwernyvigin, displaced and in his room Lewis Jones of Trebinshwn - 1660 Edward Williams replaced ~ * 1661 Walter Vaughan of Trebarried 1662 Sir John Herbert of Crickhowel, Knt. 1663 Henry Williams of Caebalva, Esq. 1664, John Williams of Cwmdu , 1665 Edward Powel of Maesmawr 1666 Hugh Powel of Castlemadoc 1667 John Stedman of Dol y Gaer 1668. Thomas Williams of Abercamlais 1669 James Watkins of Tregoid 1670 John Gwynne of Glyntawe 1671. Rees Price of Cilmeri -1672 Thomas Bowen of Llanywern * 1673 Daniel Williams of Penpont 1674, Lodowick Lewis of Pennant 1675 William Waughan of Merthyr 1676 Howel Powel of Pool hall 1677 Rees Penry of Brecon 1678 John Waters of Brecon 1679 Thomas Boulcott of Brecon 1680 John Walbeoff of Llanhamlach 1681 Charles Jones of Trebinshwn 1682 William Bowen of Trebervedd, 1683 Morgan Awbrey of Yniscedwin 1684 John Lewis of Coedmor, Cardi- - ganshire • * 1685 Morgan Watkins of Devynnock 1686 Saunders Saunders of Brecon 1687 Thomas Williams of Talgarth 1688 Edward Williams of Ffrwdgrech 1689 John Gunter of Trevecca 1690 William Williams of F elin-newydd i 691 Samuel Prichard of Builth 1692 William Williams of Cwmdu 1693 Gwyn Vaughan of Trebarried 1694 Edward Jones of Buckland 1695 William Wynter of Brecon 1696 Samuel Williams of Trevithel 1697 Thomas Bowen of Llanywern 1698 Howel Jones of Brecon 1699 Sir Edward Williams of Gwerny- fed, Bart. - - - 1700 Thomas Price of Glyn, Esq. 1701 Sackville Gwynne of Glanbran 1702 Richard Stedman of the Abbey 1703 John Davies of Cefnllys gwyn 1704 Peter Saunders of Bristol * 1705 367 APPENDIX. 1705 Godfrey Harcourt of Dany park 1706 William Price of Cilmeri in Buallt 1707 Robert Rous of Llanhamlach 1708 Henry Williams of Llangattoek 1709 John Jeffreys of Sheen in Surry 1710 John St. Loe of Devynock 1711 Anthony Morgan of Llanbedr 1712 Hugh Powel of Castlemadoc 1713 Rees Price of Devynock 1714 William Saunders of Bristol 1715 Richard Lewis of Llangeney 1716 Henry Williams of Bailibrith 1717 Edward Mathews of Chilston 1718 Charles Penry of Brecon 1719 Price Devereux of Tregoyd 1720 Thomas Prosser of Porthaml 1791 Richard Hughes of Brecon 1722 Thomas Jones of Tredustan 1723 Henry Rumsey of Crickhowel - 1724 Joshua Parry of Llandevailog 1795 Miles Stedman of Dol y Gaer 1726 Richard Wellington of Hay castle 1727 Richard Portrey of Yniscedwyn 1728 Marmaduke Protheroe of Builth 1729 William Wynter of Brecon 1730 Lewis Harcourt of Dan y park 1731 Rees Price of Cwmclyd in Lian- vihangel brym pabuan. Died in - his sheriffwick - 1732 Penry Williams of Penpont 1735 William Mathews of Chilston 1734, Charles Waughan of Seethrog i735 Evan Williams of Rhôs in Talgarth 1736 Thomas Chamberlain of Trevecca 1737 Watson Powel of Tyleglas 1738 Charles Powel of Castlemadoc 1789 Jenkin Williams of Velin newydd 1740 William Vaughan of Tregåer 1741 Jeffrey Jeffreys of the Priory 1748 1750 1752 1753 1756 1758 - 1759 Evan Hughes of Pont y waſ 1763. 1764. 1768 1770 1742 1743 1744 1745 Anthony Morgan of Llanelly Peter Saunders of Pen y lan Roderick Prydderch of Cilwhibart Edward Williams of Llangattock COUlrt - - . . Richard Wellington of Hay castle Charles Hareourt of Dan y park David Davies of Cwmwysc -. William Brydges of Brecon John Price of Cwmclyd - - Henry Rumsey of Crickhowel John Williams of Laswern in Llan- gynidr David Williams of Gaer. John Harcourt of Dan y park Thomas Price of Talgarth - Wm. Prydderch of Llandevailog Lewis Pryce of Llangorse Henry Mitchel of Battle 1746 1747 1749 #751 1754, 1765 1757 1760 1761 1762 John Bullock Lloyd of Brecon Howel Gwyn of Newton John Meredith of Brecon John Jones of Treweren Thomas Bowen of Tylecrwn Owen Evans of Pennant David Jones of Dan y crèg Maurice Jarvis of Tretower Thomas Harris of Tregunter Thomas Powel of Brecon David Lloyd of Blănclydach Marmaduke Gwynne of Garth William iyavies of Dółcoed Thomas Evans of Pennant Charles Laurence of Llyswen 1765 1766 1767 1769 177 | 1772 1773 1774, 1775 William Powel of Llanwrthw 1776. Walter Watkins Dan y graig 1777 Thynne H. Gwynne of Buckland 1778 Walter Wilkins of Cui 1779 APPENDIX, 368, 1779 Charles Vaughan of Scethrog 1780 Phillip Williams of Llangattock 1781 Lewis Williams of Pentwyn 1789 Joshua Morgan of Llanelly 1783 Thomas Meredith of Brecon 1784 Edmund Williams of Prisc in Llan- gattog 1785 Walter Roberts of Llangorse 1786 David Watkins of Llandilo'r fan 1787 John Jones of Llanafan fawr 1788 Sir Edward Williams of Llangoed castle, Bart. * - 1789. Jeffreys Wilkins of Brecon, Esq. 1790 Samuel Hughes of Tregunter 1791 Walter Jeffreys of Brecon 1792 William James of Pool hall 1793 John Lloyd of Aberannell 1794 Richard Wellington of Hay castle 1795 Henry Scrine of Dan y park 1796 Phillip Champion Crespigny of Tal y llyn - 1797 John Macnamara of Llangoedcastle 1798 John Lloyd of Dinas 1799 Edward Loveden Loveden of Llangorse - 1800 Richard Gough Aubrey of Ynis- cedwin 1801 Mathew Gwynne of Abercráf 1802 Joseph Sparks of Pen yr wrlodd 1803 Edward Kendall of Llangattock 1804 Penry Williams of Penpont 1805 William Greenly of Cwmdu, resi- dent at Titley in Herefordshire No. XVII, £ist of Judges on the Brecon Circuit, \ i. e. for the Counties of Glamorgan, Brecon and Radnor. 1578. Ari EORGE King and Francis Yate. *J Edmund Walter of Ludlow, Esq.—Obiit 1592, 1600. John Croke, Esq. - 1615. Sir Walter Pye and Andrew Powell, Esq. 1635. Sir Walter Pye and Walter Rumsey, Esq. 1637. Walter Rumsey and Sir Marmaduke Lloyd, Knt. 1647, John Eltonhed, Serjeant at law, and John Parker 1649. John Eltonhed, serjeant at law, and John Norbury - 1653. John Corbet, Esq, 1666. John Corbet, Esq. and William Foxwist. Spring sessions. 3659. John Corbet, Esq. Autumn sessions. 1660. Sir Richard illoyd. Spring sessions. - -- Fff #661, 369. APPENDIX. 1661, 1667. #676, 1681. 1685. #686, 1689. £700. 170 i. 1709. 1704. 1712. 1715. 1719. $790. #720. 1728. 1732. #744. 1745. 1753. #755. 1758. #759. $765. 1766. 1778. 1787, - Sir Richard Lloyd and Arthur Trevor. Autumn sessions. Sir Richard Lloyd and Thomas Streete. Spring sessions. Sir Thomas Streete, serjeant at law, and Owen Wynne, Esq. Robert Wright, serjeant at law, and Owen Wynne, serjeant at law. Owen Wynne, serjeant at law, and John Powel *- Owen Wynne, serjeant at law, and Thomas Geeres. Autumn sessions. William Pawlett and Edward Smith. Spring sessions. - William Pawlett; Spring sessions. William Pawlett and Edward Smith, Autumn sessions. - William Pawlett and Robert Price. Spring sessions. William Pawlett and Charles Cox. Autumn sessions. Charles Cox and William Bannastre, Serjeant at law. Spring sessions. Charles Cox and William Brydges y . T William Wright and Edward Whitaker William Hawkins deputy for William Wright. William Wright and Edward Whitaker, serjeant at law. . N. B. Mr. Justice Wright died March 8, 1790, and was succeeded by Richard Carter, Esq. who did not appear Spring sessions but sent Mr. John Whitaker as registrar and marshal, Mr. William Wynter as his Chancery clerk and Mr. Everett as his crier. *. - - Richard Carter and Edmund Probyn. Autumn sessions. Richard Carter and John Werney. - Richard Carter and Henry Proctor. Richard Carter. Autumn sessions. Richard Carter and John Hervey. John Hervey. Spring sessions. John Williams and John Hervey. Spring sessions. John Williams. Spring sessions. John Williams and John Hervey. Spring sessions. John Williams and John Richmond Webb. Spring sessions. John Williams and William Whitaker. Spring sessions. John Williams and Abel Moysey, Esq. Spring sessions. George Hardinge and Abel Moysey, Esq, Autumn sessions. APPENDIx. 876 No. XVIII, £ist of Representatives in Parliament for the County and Borough of Brecknock since the Union of Wales with England. - Year COUNTY. BOROUGH. :1542 | Edward Games of Newton, Esq. - 1547 Roger Vaughan of Porthaml. | Edward Games, Esq. * 1552 || Sir Roger Vaughan of Porthaml, Knt. Ditto :1553 | Ditto i Ditto i 554 | Ditto - - | Ditto ..] 555 | Ditto - — - - 1557 Watkin Herbert of Crickhowel, Esq. | William Awbrey, Esq. § 558 Sir Roger Vaughan of Porthaml, Knt. * Rowland Vaughan of Portham!, Esq. 1563 || Rowland Vaughan of Porthaml, Esq. | Sir Roger Vaughan of Porthaml, Knt. 1571 || Sir Roger Vaughan of Porthami, Knt. Rice Price, Esq. * 572 Thomas Games, Esq. - Walter Games, Gent. - -1 585 Ditto - | David Williams of Ystradfellte, Esq. 1588 - Robert Knowlys of Porthaml, Esq. | | Ditto’’ - • * 1592 Bitto - - * Sir Matthew Morgan, Knt. 1597 Robert Knollys, Esq. David Williams of Ystradfellte, Esº 1601 | Ditto - - | Henry Williams, Esq. w 1603 | Ditto Ditto 1614 | Henry Williams, Esq. 1620 | Sir Henry Williams of Gwernyfed, Knt. Walter pye of the Mynd, Esq. 1623 Ditto Ditto 1625 Charles Vaughan, Esq. | Sir Walter Pye, Knt. 1625 John Price of the Priory, Brecon, Esq. Ditto 1628 || Sir Henry Williams of Gwernyfed, Knt. } Ditto chosen for the county of Hereford and Wm. Pye, Esq., chosen in his stead. 1640 || William Morgan of Dderw, Esq. Herbert Price of the Priory of Brecon, Esq. 1640 | Ditto | Lewis Lewis, Esq. w tº 653 - = . #654 | | Hen. Lord Herbert and Edm. Jones, * ~ } both for the county. { - ( Philip Jones, Esq. one of his Higness's 656 } Esq. council, and Evan Lewis, Esq. { | { both for the county. 1658 || Edm. Jones, Esq. his Highness's attiforS.W. Samuel Wightwick, Esq. 1660 | Sir William Lewis of Llangorse, Bart. | Sir Henry Williams of Gwernyfed, Bart. 3661 Sir Henry Williams of Gwernyfed, Bart. Sir Herbert Price of the Priory, Brecon, Knt. § Edward Progers of Gwerny fale, Esq. | Thomas Mansel, Esq. - 371 APPENDIX, Year COUNTY. | BOROUGH. 1678 | Richard Williams, Esq., John Jeffreys, Esq. 1679 Ditto Ditto 1681 .T)itto Ditto. - 1685 Charles Marquis of Worcester }º of Worcester, waived, John, - Jeffreys, Esq. in his room. Edward Jones of Buckland, Esq. John Jeffreys, Esq. , - 1690 Sir Rowland Gwynne of Llanelweth, Knt. Thomas Morgan of Machan. Esq. 1688. 1695 Edward Jones of Buckland, Esq. tºº. others Sir Jeffrey Jeffreys, | Sir Edward williams of Gwernyfed, Bt. Ditto, 1695. . 1698 || Sir Rowland Gwynne, supra Thomas Morgan, Esq.---Supra 1. 700 TXitto * Sir Jeffrey Jeffreys, Knt. - i 701 Ditto Ditto 2- , 1702 John Jeffreys, Esq. Ditto. 1705 || Sir Edward Williams, Bart, Ditto, 1707 | Ditto Ditto * º Ditto, died this year, Edward Jeffreys, 1708 Ditto } Esq. in his room. 1710 | Ditto Edward Jeffreys, Esq. i 713 Titto - Roger Jones of Buckland, Esq. y * William Morgan, Esq. waived, Thomas, 1714 | Ditto died this Year. } Morgan, Esq. in his room, 1732. • *N Wm. Gwyn Vaughan of Trebarried, Esq. Thomas Morgan, Esq. 1722. 1722 Ditto - Hon, John Talbot, 1734, 1741 and 1747s, 1727 | Ditto - - 1734 John Jeffreys, Esq. 1741 Ditto \ . 1747 | Thomas Morgan, Esq. 1754 | Ditto Thomas Morgan, jun. Esq. 1761 | Ditto Charles Morgan, Esq. 176 Ditto * John Morgan, Esq. 1769. 1769 Charles Morgan, Esq. Charles Vann of Llanwern, Esq. 1772. 1774 Ditto Charles Gould, Esq. 1778. 1780 TXitto Ditto, then Sir Charles Gould, Knt. 1780. 1784, Ditto Charles Gould, Esq. son of ditto, 1787. 1787 Sir Charles Gould, Knt. * r Ditto, now Cha. Morgan, Esq. 1796. 1790 Ditto, (Created a Baronet, Oeſ. 30, 1792/ Sir Robert Salusbury, Bart. 1796, 1796 Ditto t Ditto 1802. - i 802 Ditto | .M.A. sº - ºve END of THE FIRST volumE, tº z *c. ...” ABERGAVENNY Castle built by Hammeline son of Drogo de Baladun, 109. Becomes the property of Walter earl of Hereford, ibid. Destroyed by the Welsh - º – 116 Agriculture of Breconshire Society of, its establish- ment, 303. Address to the king in 1756, 309 Alfred earl of Mercia's invasion of Breconshire, 81 Aluned or Elyned daughter of Brychan, 53, 60. Scite of her chapel, 54. Phrenzy of her vota- ries, ibid. Martyrdom - fºg ibid. Amobr or Gwobr'Merch abolished - - 150 Ambrost wife of Brychan - €º - 44 Amharawd ap Tangwydd, lord of Brecon - 75 Annwn's dogs - - - - - 386 Arianwen, daughter of Brychan - - 59 ASSache, what - ſºn *. * = - 254, Arwyddfardd, his duty - rºs gº 37, 209 Athelstan king of England invades Ferregs, and imposes a tribute on the Welsh reguli. - - - 79 Aulach, father of Brychan - - - -, 40. Aulus Didius, the successor of Ostorius ' ' - 30 Awbrey Sir Reginald, has Slwch and Abercyn- rig * gº gº ºn ,- gº $º 92 Awst or Augustus king of Brecknock slain - 62. / B. ‘Bannium, Bannio, Benni or Bonium, a Roman station at Gaer, 28. Supposed to be Magnis by Harris, 29. charter, 30. Its remains removed to Bre- con - º tº:- gººd *... 29 Bannau or the Beacons, the cause of cold and - rain == sº tºs - 20, 21 §annister betrays his master the duke of Buck- ingham - •. ~ - 185 Called Carneys in an old . **. Bards, their different orders, 208. Supposed Massacre of them, Temp. Edward I. - 211 Baronia, antiently what, 123. In note. Battle, wager of, introduced by the Saxons, 240. Note. - . Besants, what - - *. - 121: Bernard Newmarch's invasion of Breconshire. Victory over - * - 88 Benevolence of the Welshmen - - 104. Billhook, the Welsh gº *g 193 Blanllyfi see, Fitzherbert, , Peter de Montfort, Mortimer, &c. Bleddin ap Maenarch succeeds his father, 83. Defeated and slain by Newmarch 90, 91 Bohun (Humphrey) the sixth of that name, be-, f comes lord of Brecon, 134. His life and death, ibid et seq. the 8th lord of Brecon, his life and death, 137, et seq. the 9th succeeds his father, 146. His life, &c. ibid. et seq. John de suc- ceeds his father, 153. His life, &c. ibid et Seq. Bohun, Sir Edward, vice constable, 153. Humphrey the 10th, succeeds his brother, 154. His life, &c. ibid et seq. Humphrey the 11th. succeeds his uncle, 156. His life, &c. ibid et Seqe. Bouche or Bouge of Court, what, 149. Note Bourghill or Burghill has Crickhowel - 92. Boys or de Basco lord of Treboys - '- 92. Brachanus or Brychan, gives name to the coun ty. 9. History of -. - *. -, 43. Brecknockshire, its antient name, I. Origin of the present name, 9. General description of 7 8. Boundary, 9, et seq. Brecknock town built, 92. Besieged by Llewel- yn ap Jorwerth, 129. A second time, 138. Submits, to Llewelyn, ap Griffith, 135, but is, \ * 1 N DEx. Caerffawydd, antient name for Hereford - 73 Cammarch - º tº as *º º: 46 Canal, Brecknock and Abergavenny - - 299 Canllaw, Welsh word for an Attorney, 240. Note Cantreſselyff, boundary of 61. United to the other division of Brecon, -81. Granted to Ro- ger Vaughan - - - - - 194 Caractacus described by Tacitus, 23. Brave re- sistance against the Romans, ibid. Speech to his soldiers - - sº Aº ... sº 24 Carno, battle of 71. Definition of the word, ibid. In Note. - - - Cattle of Brecknockshire tº gº tºº 3 ſº Cattwg Sant *: ſº _ºr º ſº 49 Cawrdaf succeeds his father Cradoc Fraich-fras, 7e Caw ap Cawrdaf - - - * - - 71 Caesar Julius's opinion as to the origin of Dru- idism - gº º - * - 201 Cefn, the ridge of a hill, 142. Note, * - Ceidwad, antient name for a witness - - 237 Celli Jarſawe, defeat of the Normans there - 94 repossessed by Humphrey Bohun, 139. The castle of intrusted to Sir Thomas Berkley, 163. T]efended by Harry Vaughan, 190. Demo- lished by the inhabitants, temp. C. 1. 195 Brecenanmere, conjecture as to its situation - 79 $3ren Llewelyn, his insurrection and brief account of him sº - Sr. 149 Breos or de Breosa. Phillip married to Bertha daughter of Milo Fitzwalter, 14. His son William succeeds his uncle Mahel as lord of Brecon, 112. Slaughter of the Welsh at Aber- gavenny castle by him, I 14. Murders Tra- haern Fychan, 115. Offends king John, 117. Flies to France and dies there, 121. Charters to the Monks of Brecon, 122, 123. Giles bishop of Hereford, lord of Brecon, 124. His life, &c. ibid et seq. Reginald succeeds his brother, 125. His life, ibid et seq. William, lord of Gower, his Swindling transaction with the earl of Hereford, D’Espencer, &c. - 151 3riduw, an antient mode of swearing in Wales 236 Britain divided into provinces, by Severus, and afterwards by Constantine - ~ 36, 37 #3ronllys possessed by Walter de Clifford - 110 Brochwel Yscythrog sº º tº 51, ’59 3uckingham, first duke of the name of Stafford, lord of Brecon, 170. His life and death, ibid set seq. Henry duke of, succeeds his grand- father, 172. Conversation with Morton bishop of Ely at Brecknock, 175. Taken prisoner and beheaded, 185. Edward duke of, restored to his honours, 186. Quarrel with Wolsey, 187. Trial, 188, and execution, ibid. - Buck's defence of Richard III. ress - # 74 #3uilth mistaken for Bulleum Silurum, 6. Taken by Llewelyn ap Griffith, 135. In possession of Edmund Mortimer last earl of March, 172. Of the family of Gwynnes * * 194 $ullen, Sir Richard, lord of Wernſawr - 92 Burgesses of Brecknock, having English names in a charter of Henry VI. - * - so - I 70 3utler, earl of Ormond, earl of Brecknock - 154 C £adwgan ap Bleddin slain by the Normans, - 94 £aer or Gaer, explanation of - - - 27 £aerdaaf or Caerdiff, the Jupapannia of Baxter, 28. The Tibia Agºnis of Richargofoirengester, 29 Cenedion, daughter of Brychan - º - 66 Ceneu, daughter of Brychan, legend concerning her - - º * , & re 54, 55 Cerri invaded by Henry III. 129, His disgraceful retreat from thence - - ſº ar; I 30 Charles the first's visit to Brecon - - 195 Chenser, what, 245. Note. Churches in Breconshire. Conjecture as to the time of building wq. & º º 223 Claudius the Roman emperor. His threat against the Silures - * - - ſº 3 | Clare, countess of, story of her being relieved by Milo Fitzwalter *-i- * . mº | 0 || Clydawc, (from whence Clodock) regulus of Bre- CO1) - - - - - - - 64 Commerce of Breconshire º - 292 Cradoc Fraich-frås, lord of Brecon, 65. His descent, 65. Titles, 66. Confounded with another of the name, ibid. Supposed to have been king of the Cornish Britons, 68. Name of his wife, 69. Their children, ibid. Defi- nition of his name, 66 in note Cradoc ap Gwylym, a partizan of king John, 126- His arms, ibid. - Cray fish found in rivers runing to the Wye, - 15 emigrate, when removed - * - 16 Crickhowel, fortified against Glyndwr - tº 3 I N p ∈ X, ©ºwccas near Brecon, the residence of Tydyr ap Neubedd regulus of Brecon - - 64 Cropus, Walter de has lands in Llansaintfread, 92 Customs among farmers in Breconshire, 283, et seq.- Cwmdu supposed to be Llanvihangel-treſ-y-Cae- rau, 62. Antient boundary of tº “ 63 Cwmwd, boundary of -. &: - - 61 Cwtta Cyfarwydd Morganwg tººk 7,8 Cyfer, definition of *** as , - 3 18 Cymortha or Cymorth, what - - 254 Cyngar, daughter of Brychan, 49. Cledi, do. 53 Ceinwen do. - rºs • sº 60 Cynawg, son of do. 45, Clydwyn son ofdo. 60, 64 Cynidr, Sant - gº - 46, 47 Cromlech, supposed to be sepulchral - 208 . D Einion ap Selyff a ºf re; ºr ri - 6& Einion. Sais, returns from England, 159. Builds a castle near Penpont tº T - 60: Einion Fradwr joins Justin ap Gwrgan, 86. Pre- vails upon Fitzhammon to join him, 87. De- feats Rhys ap Tewdwr at Hirwain, ibid. Eitech daughter of Brychan wº 52. Elyssed or Elijah king of Brecon's grant to the see Eanes cross the Severn at Quatford, 77. Irrupti- on into Wales, ibid. David Saint, his parents, 213. Removes the see from Carleon to Menevia, ibid Deheubarth Deheufod or Deheudir, 4. ons of the words, ibid. Definiti- I)’Espencer junior, constituted governor of Bre- con Castle -. Fº - . 153 Devynock, a pardon by Henry IV. dated there 164 Di-estyn tal, a payment of this name in Builth 246 †)inas, the most antient fortress in Britain, 26, 27 Binas Castle destroyed * . sº £63 Brem Dremrhudd, son of Brychan, 60. His issue and territories, 61. Descendants 62. Sup- posed to be buried at Elandevailog, 61. Driffin aphiwgan, his mild but unfortunate reign?'9 Druids, their tenets, 200. Origin of the name, 205, et seq. £)ubricius, a British Saint, 44. the children of Brychan, ibid. School at Gwenddwr, ibid. t Dwynwen daughter of Brychan, the Welsh god- dess of love - - - 56 Dwyrain, definition of º -- . 5 Dyfed or Demetia, whence derived - - 4. Pyfnwal ap Tydyr, regulus of Brecon - E. Edgar king of England, his supposed award about Ystradyw tº - cº 8 Edward V. and his brother, doubts about their smurder. -- cº-- prº-". Supposed tutor of Fitzpeter Reginald, lord of Blänllyfni 181: of Landaff, 62. Supposed submission to Alfred the great - tº * - 63. Elystan Glodrydd wrests Fferregs from Dryffin, 81. His life, &c. ibid. Ely, Morton Bishop of, prisoner in Brecon castle, f75. Conference there with Buckingham, ib. et seq. Emmrheith daughter of Brychan. tº 4 53 Englischerie, what •= g” 247 Ethelbald, his invasion of Fferregs and Brechel- niawg : as * * * 71. Eurbrawt wife of Brychan Brecheiniawg - 44- F Faganus and Damianus, first propagators of the gospel in Wales - º 2} 3 Felii daughter of Brychan tº " tº 53. Fairies, popular prejudices and stories about them. - 285. Fish found in the rivers of Breconshire - 15, 16 Fishponds recommended - - - - 18 Fitzwalter Milo, succeeds his father-in-law in the lordship of Brecon, 99. His life, exploits, &c. ibid et seq; - Fitzherbert Peter, has a graut of Blänllyfni and Talgarth, 124. Marries one of the daughters . of William de Breos, 133. Death, ibid. Grant. to the monks of Brecon, ibid. - - . 133. Fitzreginald John, Summoned to parliament as . lord Fitzreginald of Blänllyfni - - 146. Francton Adam de, slays Llewelyn ap Griffith, 141 Supposed to be buried at Wyberton, ibid, . Shields and inscriptions on his tomb-stone, ibid. Frontinus Julius succeeds Petilius Cerealis, 32. Track of the roads from him called Strata Julia, ibid. G Gadelus, his supposed eonquest of Galway - 38. Gaer or Caer-bannau, near Brecon, 27. Gaer near Cwmdā, a Roman Station. -- - 38. *** * * I N D F x, Gam, Sir David, 159. Supposed to be Shak- speare's Fluellin - - 160 Games Family. Their possessions, 161. Sup- posed to be extinct, ibid." . . Garthmadryn, attent name of Breconshire - 1 Gavelkind, what - - * * 238 Geraint ap Erbin king of Cornwall 68 Giffard John, lord of Bronllys, assists Mortimer in the defeat of Llewelyn - - Giles bishop of Hereford, lord of Brecom. See de Breos Giraldus Cambrensis, appointed to preach up the payment of Tythes, 216. Made Archdeacon of Brecon, ibid. Appointed bishop of St. David's 219. Dispute with the king of Eng- land, and appeal to Rome, 220, et seq. Glodrhydd, see Elystan Gloucester, Gilbert earl of, appointed guardian to . Humphrey de Bohun, 143. Quarrel between théir tenants, ibid. - • * - Glyndwr Owen, his insurrection, 159. Cause of it * gº tº - Gogledd or Gogledd-dir, name for North Wales, 4 Gorllewin, definition of ... ...- 5. Goleuddydd, daughter of Brychan - 53 Gower, supposed to be part of the territory of sº - * , * . Brychan, 14, note, and to be conquered by Roger de Newburgh, 95. Dispute about it, I 51 Griffith ap Rhys ap Tudor, marvellous story about the birds at Llynsavaddan singing at his ap- proach - - - - tº * - iO0 Gunter, Sir Peter, has Gunterstone - - 92 Gwaler, daughter of Brychan married to Elydr Llydanwyn - - - 49 Gwen, daughter of Brychan, 53, 60. Gwen- ddydd or Gwawrddydd, do. * 60 Gwenfrewi, ditto - t wº fºr ſº sº gº rººf * sº wº tº tº * . 52 Gwenwynwyn besieges Pains-castle - - 116 Gwilym David ap, his poem on the wind - 57 Gwladis daughter of Brychan - - 46, 59 Gwladis widow of Reginald de Breos marries Ralph Mortimer - r 129 Gwngy ap Anharawd lord of Fferregs and Brecon z - Gwraldeg, regulus of Brecon, - gº iº i.e. ſº is . 76 139 161 heir of Phillip Gwys, lord of Gwiston of Wiston, ibid. . His descendants = , 99 Gwrgon daughter of Brychan - 60. rººt - tºº sº Gwtfil daughter of Brychan, marries Cyngar ap Cynwawr, 51. Mother to Brochwel Yscythrog Gwybyddiad, Welsh word for a witness - 237 Hywel Dda, his dispute with Morgan Hen, parliament, temp. C. 1. H - w Harris's letter to the society of antiquaries about Gaer being Magnis * 29 Havard, Sir Walter, lord of Pontwilym - 92 Hay given to Sir Phillip Walwyn, 92. Burht by Llewelyn ap Jorwerth, 100. Possessed by the Gwyns, 194. Vaughan, Harley, ibid. Henry the first admits the injustice of the claim of the English monarchs to Wales. 100; Henry the second recalls his predecessor's grants, 105. Resented by the earl of Hereford, ibid. Henry the fourth, lord of Brecon - I, 58. Henry the fifth, lord of Brecon, his charter to the ... burgesses - * 167 Henry de Hereford succeeds his uncleWalter, 110 Killed by Sitsyllt ap Dyſnwal, ibid. Holbw.rch, family of, 166, in note. * Horses, breed of in Breconshire - 319 Horton Colonel, sent into Breconshire by the * * ... - - 195 Hubert de Burgh advises Henry III. to build a castle at Cerri - - * * Hwgan or Huganus, regulus of Breconshire, 78. Slain at Derby - - - 79 7 et seq. Unites the whole of Wales, 80. Enº. a code of laws, ib, and causes a Survey of the principality to be made, ibid. His laws, 233, et Seq, - Hyvaidd, from whence Maeshyvaidd, Radnor. shire, ut dic. * . * - 69 & ** * tºº ºn , ; g ? = * tºº *is * ſº ass sº * hº f * Jāa defeated at Argoed Llwyfāin, by Urien sº gº Reged - 48 Ideo Wyllt assists Rhys ap Tewdwr, 85, and set- tles at Llywel, ib. Ancestor of the Parrys, &c. ibid - tºº tº * 213 gº • * 37 - -- Gwryan Son of Bleddin ap Maenarch, prisoner to Iltutus or Illtid, a British Saint Bernard Newmarch, 93. Has Blänllyfni and Jones's origin of languages, 4, in note Aberlyini, ibid. Marries the daughter and Jones Jenkin's letter to the Rev. T. Powel, &c,.22s. * \ 13(; . "I N D’E X. Joan, natural daughter to king John, married -to Llewelyn ap Jorwerth, 130. Supposed in- trigue with William de Breos, ibid. John, St. the Evangelist, grants to this priory by Bernard Newmarch, 96, 97. Roger earl of Hereford, 106, etseg, Mahel de Hereford, 111. *William de Breos 122 John king of England's manifesto against William de Breos, 117, et seq. , Julia Strata, course of through Wales - 32. L º *ºg; * * Labour, price of in Breconshire - - 328 Eanguage of this county and its vicinity - 270 Larder, y fuwch Larder º “º ſº 107 Taws, Dyfawal moel-mud, 231. Hywel Dda, 233. Lords marchers, 243. , English statutes. relative to Wales - - - - 290. Heeks, erroneously said to be the badge of Wales, 1 * / - 290 †iber Landavensis, extract said to be from that book tº *Gºº & º \ss 7, 8 Lime, course of the vein through Breconshire, 20 Lincoln, battle of, 101. Different accounts of the behaviour of the Welsh there - - 102 'Llannio issa said to be Loveſitium - - 6 Llandegemman, a religious house in Demetia, 7 3 langeney ditto -- - - 7 ilangorse given to the see of Landaff by Eliud and Rhiwallon ~. - 62 £lechryd, battle of - - - sº 84 Lleon gavr, who, 35. Sarn Lleon, ibid ILlewelyn ap Jorwerth besieges Brecon, 127. March into Glamorganshire, ibid. Elewelyn ap Griffith, march to Aberedwy, 139. Builth, 140. Pont-y-coed, ib. Battle there, tax wo hºt Es and death - - - - - 141 £lian daughter of Brychan - - - 53, 60 61 Llywel, derivation of - - - - Llywarch hén, brief account of, 49. Extract from, ibid et seq. - - - 48 Ilongspee Matilda, solicits the rites of Sepulture for the corpse of Llewelyn ap Griffith - 143 ‘Loventium of Ptolomy, where - - - 6 Lucius, first Christian king of Britain Luminare in choirs and cathedrals, what - 138 M - Madoc, of Llanfynach succeeds after three years. G. g.g Caerlleon, Chester, ibid. ' - 213 imprisonment, in a cause with the duke of Buckingham - - - - - 171 Maelged, a tribute - - - 76 Maenarch, lord of Brecon marries Elinor daugh- ter of Einion ap Selyff, 62. Succeeds his fa- ºther Dryffin - - , – 8 I Mahel son of Bernard declared illegitimate by his mother º sº sº * . = ~ 98 Mahel de Hereford, lord of Brecon, 1.10. Perse- cutes the bishop of St. David's, ib. Killed by the fall of a stone at Bronllys castle, ibid. Char- 'ter to the Monks of Brecon - * | | | Malvern, definition of - - - - 26 Manlius Valens defeated by the Britons - - 31 Manures used in Breconshire - - 323 Marchell, daughter of Tewdrig, legend concern- ing her, 40, and Appendix No. 6. Marries Aulach son of Gormac of Ireland, 39. Brych- an in her right becomes regulus of Breconshire, 41. Her Arms, ibid Marchell, daughter of Brychan - - Maridunum, see Muridunum Marlais castle, supposed to be the occasion of a 48, dispute Yess sº º * * - 143 Marchers, lords, brief account of them, their rank, &c. • • º * - 243 Maud,the Empress, assisted by Milo Fitzwalter,103 Maud de St. Valeri, or St. Walery, brief account of her, 112. Legend about her building Hay castle, 113. Malapert answer to the Messen- gers of the king of England, 117. Behaviour afterwards, 119. Confined at Bristol, 120. Starved at Windsor or Corfe Castfe - 121 Mechell, daughter of Brychan - - 60 Meillionen, the Welsh badge - - 290 Melari or Eleri, mother of St. David - 49, 60 Misseltoe, veneration of the Druids for - 207 Moltura, explanation of 108, in note Montfort Peter de, wrests Blänllyfni from Wal- erand de Teys - * is = - . 136 Morgan hén, dispute about Ystradyw with Hywel dda, 7, et seq. . * Morgan, family of, acquire the lordship of Brecon, - * , 194 Mortimer, Edmund, defeats Llewelyn ap Griffith near Builth * - - - - 141 Mortimer, Roger, summonéd to parliament as baron of Penkelly, 146. Roger possessed of Blanllyfni 3 &c. a es ^ - . 1 53 f N. D. E. X. Mortimer, Roger son of Edmund earl of March possessed of Blanllyfni, Dinas, &c. - 158 Mortimer, Edmund last earl of March dies, pos- esssed of Builth, &c. wº ºn. Mountains, the principal in Bregonshire - 19, 20 Muragium or Murage, what, 167. Note. Muridunum or Maridunum, definition of the word, 2 in Note N Nest, Wiſe of Bernard Newmarch, her charac- ter, 98. Mother of Walter Steward, ance- stor of the Stuarts kings of England. Bastar- dizes her own son - - - - 98. Neubedd. regulus of Brecon Erºl pº 64 Neſyn, daughter of Brychan, 60. Neſydd do. 60 Newburgh, Roger de, comes to the assistance of Bernard, 95. Conquers Gower, ibid. Newmarch Bernard, conquers Breconshire, 88. Brief history of his life, 91, et seq. - O. - Offa defeated by the Welsh, 72. Builds a dyke, ibid. Again defeated at Sutton Wallia, 74. Character, ibid. His victory at Rhuddlan, 75 Ostorius Scapula, the first Roman general who penetrated into Breconshire, 23. His supposed a- P Pannagium or Panhage, what, 108, in note Parthenius, story of a Celt, from his erotica 277. Peckham archbishop of Canterbury endeavours to reconcile Llewelyn and Edward I. - i 37 Pelagian heresy introduced into Britain, 213. Opposed by Germanus and Lupus, ibid. Penkelly granted to Sir John Chandos, 164. Note. Persians, their earliest religion - sº rº 205 Peters's Hugh root and branch scheme - 196 Pheresgri, wife of Brychan gºs - 44 Peyton, Sir Richard lord of Peyton 92 Picard, Sir Miles lord of Scethrog - - -92 Pierrepoint, alias Parkville, lord of Gilston 92. Pierrepoint, a burgess of Brecon in 1448 171 Pinkerton, his sentiments of the Celts and their language tºº •. - 275 Ploughs used in Breconshire - - 315 Pepulation º -- - - - tºº † 4 £owel Thomas, rector of Cantreff's letters to Jen- kin Jones - - - 227 Purgation or compurgation, what 250 172. Rhiengar, daughter of Brychan - Rhuddlan, battle of, 75. Old Welsh tune of Skull, Sir John lord of Bolgoed and Crai - President and Council of the marches, their juris- diction dissolved # *- sº 268 Q - Quatford on Severne, irruption and passage of the Danes from thence into Wales - - 77 ** R. . Recoveries, similarity between them and the pro- ceedings of the Welsh courts, introduced into England, temp. E. I. 243. Into general UISè. in the reign of H. VII, ibid. Regality of the lordship's Marchers - 246. Religion of Breconshire in the time of the Druids, 199, et seq. in the early ages of Christianity, 212. After the conquest, 213. In the time of C. I. to the present time, 224, et seq. Rhaith, a species of purgation - ſº 255. gº 60. Morfa Rhuddlan, page following Rhynhyder, daughter of Brychan - - 49 Rhyneiden, ditto - wº. * 53. Rivers of Breconshire, the principal - iº 15. Roads, antient in Breconshire, 293. Present turnpike roads - - 296. Roger earl of Hereford succeeds Miles Fitzwalter as lord of Brecon, 104. His life, &c. ibid et Seq. Charters to the monks of Brecon, 106, 107, iOS. To the abbey of D'or - 108 Romans, their transactions during their stay in Britain, 32 et seq. The date of their depar- ture - tºng tº. - fº S 37 Salmon, their habits tº gº 17. Sarn Lleon, vulgarly Sarn Helen, its course,35,36. Sawdwr, translation of, or definition by Owen, 224, in note Scyris et hundredis, what, 122, in note Seizina or Seizin, what, 136, in note Sewin not found in rivers running from West to East tº jº .** 16” Sheep of Breconshire, their habits and manners321 Silures, Siluria and Syllwyr, whence derived, difference of opinion as to the country, and where settled, 3, 4, 22, et seq. Said by Pinker- ton to be a generic term - ... ºut 23 Sitsyllt ap Dyfnwal and many Welshmen murder- ed at Abergavenny castie tºº | | 5 93. † Nº D E X. - -- Soil of Breconshire, of Builth, 311. Of the vales of Wye, 312, and Usk, ibid. $ollers, Sir Humphrey, lord of Tredustan - 92 Stafford, countess of, succeeds to the lordship of Brecon, 168. Her petition to the crown, ibid. Disfranchises the borough, 169. Brief history of this family, ibid et seq. Summagium, what ** - º 107 Surdwal, Sir Hugh, lord of Aberescir ºt 92 Syttric king of Dublin, &c.'s grant to a church in Dublin, 84. Strange story as to the punishment of his wife for poisoning him, ibid. in note. T Tacitus, his description of the Silures, 23, 31. His opinion of the Druids, and of their offering up human sacrifices - - 204 Tāf-wy definition of - s 29 Talbot Gilbert, lord, possessed of the castle of Blanllyfni - * - 155 Tangwysti Tydvil, daughter of Brychan, 52, 59 Teiliaw, a British saint amº - sex 213 Teithall, regulus of Breconshire, 38. Tydheirn, ibid. Teithphaltym, 39. Tydyr or Tewdrig,ib. Teithwalch ap Cyndeg, prince of Fferregs and Brecheiniog, 71. Succeeded by his son Tegyd, 72. Who was followed by his sen Tangwydd, 73. Tewdwr or Tudor Rhys ap, brief history of, 83. Driven into Ireland, 84. Returns and is vic- torious, ibid. Defeated at Hirwain, 87. Slain near Brecon - .* . º. pº 488 Teyrnged, a tribute * * 76 Teys Walerand de, lord of Blanllyfni - 133 Theonius and Thadiocus, two English bishops, driven into Wales. • * - 214 Thomas Hugh, the herald, 38, in note Tourney or Tourneyment, what rº- 149: Trahaern ap Gwrgan, his descendants - 99 Trahaern Fychan, murdered by Wm. de Breos 115 "Trecastle, probably the residence of the ancient reguli of Breconshire * º 61 Tretower fortified by Sir James Berkley I 63. Printed by W m. and Geo. North, - Brecknock. _- 2-------- Tybie daughter of Brychan, 53. Tydieu, do. 66 Tysd, Welsh word for a Witness - - 237 Tydyr ap Rhain, king of Brecknock excommu- nicated tºº. sº - • 62 Tywysog, explanation of - * 63 U Union of Wales with England sº 245 Urien Reged º º 48. - V \ Valens, see Manlius Veterate, an antient mode of challenge in Wales 285 Ville, what, 63, in note f Walbeoff or Walbieffe, Sir John, has Llanham- lach * Bºr gº 93 Walerand, see Teys Walwyn, Sir Phillip, lord of Hay, 92. Sir Elias, discovers a ford in the Hrvon, by which the En- glish were enabled to defeat Llewelyn, 141. Name lately in Breconshire, and present motto 93, in note. - Walter earl of Hereford succeeds his brother as lord of Brecon: gº- - - - 109 Warbeck Perkin, supposed to be the D.of York 182 Wasters, in stat. Henry the IV. what Wechlen, the anchorite of Clyro, story of him, i 13, in note x - Weddings, Welsh - •e & 253. Welsherie, what * * 247 Whittanwariis, 240. Note -- Woollen yarn market proposed - 304 Worcester Henry earl of, created steward of the lordship of Brecon * fºr, 190 Wrgren daughter of Brychan - = 48 Wynter Benedict, one of this name of Brecon, in 1448 * .* so * 171 Y Ystradgynlais, supposed to be derived from St. Gunleus º sº 46 Ystradtowy invaded hy the Danes = 7& f º, O2 * ... **