THE STORY OF TWO PARISHES

DOLGELLEY & LLANELLTYD

by T.P.ELLIS

XV. THE CIVIL WARS AND THE LATER STUARTS.

 

DOLGELLEY IN THE CIVIL WARS-THE CHURCH REGISTERS-THE DOLGELLEY CHARITIES-DR. JOHN ELLIS AND THE GRAMMAR SCHOOL-OTHER RECTORS-ROBERT VAUGHAN THE ANTIQUARY-THE OLD WELSH MSS.-THE QUAKERS AND GEORGE FOX-ROWLAND ELLIS OF BRYN MAWR-THE INDEPENDENTS AND HUGH OWEN-THE BREAK-UP OF THE TRIBAL SYSTEM-RISE OF LANDLORDS-INVENTORIES AT HENGWRT IN 1696-THE THREE SIR ROBERTS-THE CHANGES OF THE XVI.-XVIITHCENTURIES.

WHEN the Civil Wars broke out, Merioneth, like the rest of Wales, was enthusiastically pro-royalist. It was in fact in Merioneth that the last fortress in the realm, that of Harlech, held out for the King.

Dolgelley, being the central market town of the country, was too important to escape attention altogether.

In November, 1644, Sir William Vaughan levied an impost of £140/- and many bales of cloth on the wool-traders of Dolgelley in the King's name; but it was not until the following year that the sounds of combat were heard generally in the neighbourhood.

Dolgelley was held then by Capt. John Nanney and Lieut. Dafydd Llwyd for the King, with some 30 to 40 cavalry and some footmen, and in July, 1645, Sir Marmaduke Langdale passed through the town with royalist troops, staying a couple of nights on the way. Even the King is credited with having sojourned here a while, and to have stayed at the old house of the Eagles, later known as Ty Newydd.

In August, 1645, a Parliamentary raiding force crossed over Cader Idris from Machynlleth, and, in the early hours of the morning, descended on Dolgelley, sacked a few houses, and cleared off before the sun had risen.

In April of the following year, Col. Vane descended on Dolgelley with some 300 or 400 men, and made himself conspicuous by detaching some 100 of them to seize Dinas Mawddwy, with orders to kill and destroy everyone and everything they could, orders which were rigorously carried out.

The town seems to have passed soon after into the hands of the Parliamentary forces; and it was garrisoned for them by troops under the command of one Edward Vaughan. An attempt by a hundred royalists was made to capture the town; but the beseiging force was defeated and pursued by Edward Vaughan, who took many of them prisoners, including the captain.

The end of the royalist cause was not far off and, while it was coming, Cromwell is said to have stayed in Dolgelley during his brief Welsh campaign, putting up also at the Eagles, where, no doubt, he was visited by his famous brother-in-law to-be, Col. John Jones of Maes-y-garnedd.

Though the times were stirring enough, two more peaceful survivals of these days deserve noticing.

One is that from 1640 the regular series of Church registers began to be kept in Dolgelley, and these registers furnish an important account of local affairs.

The earliest volume is a combined register of baptisms, marriages and burials, covering the years 1640-1689 The entries are mainly in Latin, English being introduced in 1652, and occasionally employed thereafter. Similar volumes cover the years 1689-1724 and 1725-1789, after which separate registers were maintained.

A very interesting register is one entitled "The Register Booke of the parish of Dolgelley in the county of Merioneth, provided by virtue of the Act of Parliament for burying in woollen." It covers the period 1678 to 1708, and the entries of burials are supported by two affidavits that the corpse was buried in woollen only, and the affidavits are attested by the Rector. In the later years a number of entries occur without any affidavits, showing that the rule ceased to be observed.

The most valuable, however, of these registers is the "Vestry Minute Book," which, beginning in 1796, has been maintained regularly until to-day, and throws invaluable light on social conditions in the neighbourhood throughout the XIXth century.

Another fact of interest is that in 1651 one William John Evans of Dolgledr gave a farm situated in Towyn, the income of which, 1/- every Sunday, was to be spent in procuring bread for the poor of Dolgelley. This charity was augmented by gifts of £30/-, £20/- and £30/- in 1729, 1786 and 1798 by Ursula Owen of Tany-y-gader, David Jones of Tany-Fedw, and John Davies of Fronserth. The charity was known as the Faenol Charity, and the Church archives contain accounts of its administration up to 1927.

This period of storm and stress produced also two men in the neighbourhood, to one of whom Dolgelley, and to the other the whole of Wales, are deeply indebted.

The first was Dr. John Ellis, D.D., who was Rector of Dolgelley throughout the period of the Commonwealth, and lived to see the Restoration, for he was rector from 1647 to 1665. The debt which Dolgelley owes to him is that he was the founder of the ancient grammar school, which still flourishes under different auspices.

John Ellis was a native of Merioneth, having been born at Maentwrog and brought up at Llandecwyn, and it is said that he claimed descent - a descent, I am told by one who knows, which is fully authenticated - from the redoubtable old warrior, Dafydd ap Ieuan ap Einion of Harlech, whose glorious defence of that fortress inspired the immortal air of the March of the Men of Harlech. He was educated at Hart Hall, now Hertford College, Oxford, became a Fellow of Jesus College, a D.D. of both St. Andrews and of Oxford, and the author of many theological works, famous enough in their time.

The school he founded was the first school of any importance founded in the county after the suppression of Cymmer Abbey. He also founded a parochial school at Harlech on a less ambitious scale.

The original endowment of the school consisted of a tenement called Penrhyn in the parish of Llanaber, with a rental of £13/- per ann, and it was bequeathed in 1665 for the education of twelve poor boys of Dolgelley parish. The trustees were the Rector, churchwardens and twelve parishioners. Later on, its endowments were increased by two other rectors of the parish.

One was the Revd. Ellis Lewis, who gave the school some land in Cilgwyn, Denbigh, and £50/-, wherewith to build a schoolroom, which, repaired and restored, still stands on the Towyn road.

The other was the Revd. John Tamberlain, rector from 1774 to 1794, who endowed the school with £300/-'in consols.

The school fell upon evil days in the early part of the XIXth century, so much so that in 1831 an agitation, headed by the then owner of Caerynwch, Mr. Richard Richards, led to its being placed on a sounder footing. A petition of the time, to the vestry shows that the headmaster was constantly absent for six months at a stretch, the old school building was dilapidated and let out as tenements to labourers, and for six years not more than three or four boys had attended the school. 

The result of the agitation was to rehabilitate the school, which continued to carry on its work on the original lines until it was brought under the Intermediate School scheme.

Among Dr. John Ellis' successors was Maurice Jones, whose name is worth recalling, because in 1680 he donated a silver communion cup to, the Church, which it still possesses, and which- is used nowadays at Easter only. Dr. Ellis' immediate predecessor was William Price, an alumnus of Christ Church, Oxford, and a D.D. of that University, which honoured him by appointing him its first lecturer in Modern Philosophy.

He was the close friend of one of the most honoured names of the locality, the famous Robert Vaughan of Hengwrt, commonly known as the Antiquary, who died in 1666 and is said to have been buried in Llanelltyd Church; though I can find no trace of his grave there.

One of the characteristics of the late Tudor and early Stuart period was the intense interest displayed in all things Welsh, and, the high appreciation in which the Welsh people and past were held in across the border. This attitude of mind was changed after the Civil Wars, and the racial bitterness which some English people began to show towards the Welsh people, and which continued to the end of the XVIIIth century, traces of which still, unfortunately, exist, was largely due to the gallant loyalty the Welsh had shown-perhaps mistakenly-towards the Crown. Because,they were loyal to old forms and faith, they were painted as ignorant; because they fought and died bravely, they were painted as savages; because they adhered to a cause which was a lost one, their own cause was painted as lost and not worth preserving.

This interest in all things Welsh turned the thoughts of two Welshmen towards rescuing and preserving the literary monuments of their country's past. The one was Mr. Jones of Gelli Lyfdy, who began collecting ancient Welsh MSS at the beginning of the XVIIth century, and Robert Vaughan became a kind of friendly rival of his in this pursuit. The two decided that it would be a good thing if arrangements were-made for the separate collections to be amalgamated, and accordingly they agreed that the one who survived should become the possessor of the collection of the other. Mr. Jones died first, and thus both libraries were housed at Hengwrt, where they remained for something like 200 years.

They eventually passed to Peniarth, and some few years ago were purchased by the late Sir John Williams, M.D., and presented by him to the National Library of Wales; one of the finest collections of ancient manuscripts that the world contains.

It needs, perhaps, someone acquainted with Welsh history to appreciate the full value of this collection, and hence names like the Black Book of Carmarthen, the White Book of the Mabinogion, the Book of Aneurin and the Book of Taliesin-just four out of a matter of 400 odd documents-convey little to the ordinary man. However that may be, these priceless relics of an ancient past were all included in that magnificent collection, known now throughout the world of scholarship as the Peniarth mss.

Collected by one who was Welsh and loved Wales and its past, they were, in our own days, presented freely to the Welsh nation by another Welshman, who loved Wales equally and, looking forward to the future, was the chief agent in the foundation of our noblest modern institution, the National Library.

If the neighbourhood of Dolgelley has no other claim to fame, the fact that it was a Dolgelley man who amassed and saved this heritage of a nation's literature and history is almost enough to place Dolgelley in the forefront of Welsh places of abiding interest.

Personally, I can never pass Hengwrt, without recalling to mind the great scholar that lived there some 300 years or so ago; but that, perhaps, is because I look upon the Mabinogion as one of the greatest literary achievements of the world, ranking with Homer, Dante, and Shakespeare.

I think we might pause here a little to say something about the Quakers, who made their appearance in Dolgelley about the end of the Commonwealth period.

One of the first comers was their great leader, George Fox, who visited the town in the year 1657. It is said that as he came from Machynlleth over the Bwlch Goch he rested at the top of the pass, and, looking down over the valley of the Wnion, he was so struck with the beauty of the place that he felt he had reached the earthly paradise of his quest, and said "This is the valley of the peace and beauty of God, wherein He shall raise unto Himself a people to dwell in His knowledge."

His followers established themselves here, and a small community of Quakers continued to exist until 1837.

Among the leading members of the community was Rowland Ellis, a farmer of Bryn Mawr, who in 1686 set out with a hundred of his neighbours for Pennsylvania. The journey occupied 24 weeks to complete, and thirty of the little company died en route. They eventually settled at a place, which they called Bryn Mawr after the old Dolgelley farm; and there, there grew up the leading Women's University in the world, the University of Bryn Mawr. 

It is perhaps not unworthy of notice that two of the greatest academies in the States derive their foundation and their names from North Wales -Bryn Mawr, the leading Women's University, and Yale, the leading Man's University, founded by a Welshman of Denbighshire, Elihu Ial , who was one of the earliest Governors of Fort St. George, that famous Indian settlement, now known as Madras.

The only other Nonconformists who appeared in the neighbourhood at the time were the Independents. Their principal leader was Hugh Owen of Bron-y-clydwr. He was a splendid character, a keen educationalist, and passionately attached to Wales. He was a member of the family of Baron Owen of Llwyn, but as his work was mainly carried on in his native village of Llanegryn, we must pass him by without further notice. The Independents appear to have had a small meeting-house in the town, which was under the same ministration as Llanegryn, and no doubt Hugh Owen visited Dolgelley on many occasions.

Story states also that the Presbyterians had a meeting-house in Dolgelley in the time of the Commonwealth, and that it was known as Ty Cyfarfod; but hitherto I have not been able to find any indisputable evidence confirmatory of the story.

Real Nonconformity, which became so strong a force in the land, grew up at a much later period, and is only very distantly connected with the Puritan movement of the XVIIth century.
There are a few facts about the economic history of the period, which are not without interest.
The tribal system of land holding, which has been described roughly in earlier pages, and which for centuries had been decaying, came to an end with the legislation of Henry VII. The tribal holdings were gradually divided among the clan members, and individual ownership began to take the place of the old comity.

The whole of the later Tudor and Stuart periods saw extensive sales of the lesser holdings. A temporary cheek appears to have been given to alterations under the Commonwealth, not because of any political movement against transfers, but because of the intense insecurity of titles during that period, but the check was only temporary.

Here, as elsewhere in Wales, there were men keenly alive to the new possibilities, who began to buy up land as rapidly as it came into the market.

It is so often stated that the ordinary clansmen were expropriated by the strong arm. Instances of that happening there possibly were, but a study of actual conveyances of the time in this locality shows that such instances were rare; and the change that came about in the system of land holding was due to economic forces, which some availed themselves of, others did not.

It was by means of continued purchases, as property was offered, that the local estates were, in the main, built up; and whether it was a good thing or not, the concentration of proprietary interests in land in the hands of a few was brought about by perfectly legitimate methods.

We find some of the founders of local estates were keen business men, following the ordinary avocations of the countryside, and investing their gains in fresh purchases of land. We can see the pursuit of these avocations very clearly in inventories of property, which show that the breeding of cattle and sheep, the cultivation of oats and dairy farming, grew enormously during the period.

These inventories, too, show that ploughing was still done by oxen, while sidelights are thrown on the standard of living, which, if rough, was very far from being low.

One of the most interesting is the inventory of Hengwrt, made in the year 1696, when the period was ending, a summary of which has been published in the 1927 volume of the Transactions of the Cymmrodorion Society.
The owners of Hengwrt were then the most considerable landowners in the neighbourhood, and the inventory shows they were engaged mainly in cattle and sheep breeding. They owned 142 head of cattle, 1,093 sheep, and 49 goats. Their outbuildings were stocked with oats, rye, barley, no less than 249 cheeses and 51 quarters of butter, while the accumulated wool and yarn ran to 454 pounds. Sheep were valued at 2/- to 4/- per head, cows at £1/10/- to £2/-, sows at 4/-, whole cheeses at 2/3, butter at 1/6 the quarter, wool at 2/- per lb.

The household furniture was void of articles of luxury; cupboards, chests, beds and the, like necessary articles forming the main body of it; and the method of living is apparent from the fact that the most prominent objects in the great hall were huge scales and weights and stocks of barrels full of oatmeal and butter. The kitchen was the most important room, however, and the long list of brass and pewter vessels shows the standard of comfort of the time far more clearly than anything else.

Though here we are trespassing beyond the period, it should be noted that a great change took place in the course of the next quarter of a century. The cattle had fallen in number to 61, the sheep to 285, the goats to 1. These figures are illustrative of an important economic movement, which went on throughout Wales in the XVIIIth century.

Those who had taken advantage of the changed condition of things brought about by the Tudor legislation, and had acquired land freely, continued, for rather more than a century, to farm themselves the land they had acquired, gaining fresh wealth thereby. and adding to their possessions.

The beginning of the XVIIIth century found them reducing their activities in this direction, letting out their acquisitions to rent-paying tenants, and turning their attention to estate management and other pursuits.

So far as Wales was concerned, though the change was inevitable, the result was not altogether advantageous. Many of the wealthier landowners were attracted to the life beyond the border, and gradually lost that intimate touch with the people around them, which their predecessors, following the same pursuits as their neighbours, had maintained in times past,
It was this change in occupation, far more than anything else, that caused the larger landowners in Wales to lose the influence they might otherwise have exercised in the land in the days that were to come.

Locally, the Hengwrt family, in the early part of the XVIIIth century, seems to have lost touch almost completely with the locality; the pursuits of some of its members brought the estates almost to ruin; but their fortunes were restored by the three Sir Robert Vaughans at the end of the XVIIIth and beginning of the XIXth century, men, really great in their way, who devoted much of their talents and services to the land and people of their origin.

We have travelled far beyond our limits, and we must hark back to the net result of the XVIIth century.

The Tudor-Stewart period saw a revolution in politics and in religion; but the greatest revolution was the silently wrought economic one. Just as in ordinary commerce this period gave an opportunity for the growth of a commercial middle-class, so it gave an opportunity for the growth of a landed proprietary class; and locally, it is possible to see how, by concentration on a definite purpose, continued through generations, families of the comfortable farming profession developed, by purchase and by coalition through marriage, into powerful landlords.

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