The making of modern Wales; studies in the Tudor settlement of Wales

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THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

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TORONTO

THE MAKING OF

MODERN WALES

STUDIES
IN THE TUDOR SETTLEMENT OF WALES

BY

W. LLEWELYN WILLIAMS

B.C.L. (Oxon), K.C.

1ENCHER OF LINCOLN'S INN, AND RECORDER OF CARDIFF

MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED
ST. MARTIN'S STREET, LONDON

1919

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lOD+O

COPYRIGHT

ULASQOW : PRINTED AT THE 0NIVKR3ITY PRESS
BT ROBERT MACLKHOSK AND CO. LTD.

OBRARY
UNIVERSITY OF CAUF0HN1
SANTA BARBARA

CONTENTS

PAGE

Introduction i

CHAPTER I

Wales after the Conquest: 1282-1542 - - 29

CHAPTER II
Grant of a Constitution 65

CHAPTER III
Council of the Marches, 1 542-1689 - - - - 87

CHAPTER IV
The King's Court of Great Sessions, 1542- 1830 - 128

CHAPTER V
The Reformation 195

CHAPTER VI
Nonconformity .... . . 259

CHAPTER VII
The Welsh Language 289

Amdanaf fy hun, mi allaf ddoedyd er dwyn onof y
rhan fwyaf o'm byd hyd yn hyn o'm hoes ym-mhell
oddi wrth wlad Gymry, etto wrth fod ymysg Ieithoedd
dieithr, a darfod i mi dreulio f amser a'm hastudrwydd
mewn pethau eraill, ni bu fwy fyngofal ar fyfyrio, a dal
i'm cof un iaith, no'r Gymraec ; gan ddamuno allu o
honof wnenthyr rhyw les ir iaith a'r wlad lie ym ganwyd.

Morus Kyffin.

Ac o'm rhann inheu fyhunan, wrthych oil yr achwynaf
na chefais nemor o gyflawn na thymherus adec nac
amser na chwaith esmwythder na seibiant o'r byd i
alhu cwplau a pherpheithio y llyfrau yma yn hanner
cystal ac yroedh fy ewyllys. ^ ^^ RRys

Gwnewch a pherpheithiwch y maint a dharfu i mi
dhechreu : neu (o'r bydh gwelh ganwch) gadewch yr
eidho fi yn lhonydh megis ag'y mae, a' mal yn oferbeth ;
a dychmygwch chwitheu betheu erailh, a' threfneu a
font gwelh no'r meu fi. Canys ny's gwneuthum i etto,
onyd megys torri'r ia ; ac y sawl a fynno, dilyned yn
ehofn ; a'r sawl ni fynno, torred yr ia i hun, ac aed
rhagdho yn enw Duw. ^ Dafydd Rhys<

TO THE READER

This book is not intended to be a History of Modern
Wales, but an attempt to describe the transformation of
Mediaeval into Modern Wales. No pioneer has blazed
a path through the untrodden forest before me. Dr.
Henry Owen, the late Judge Lewis, Mr. Lleufer Thomas,
and Miss Skeel have done valuable work in reference to
the Court of the Council of the Marches. Dr. Thomas
Rees and others have spent much labour over the history
of Nonconformity. But, except in these directions, I
have had the benefit of no previous work. These cir-
cumstances will help to explain why I have apportioned
so much space to the decay of Catholicism and so little,
comparatively, to the rise and progress of Noncon-
formity in Wales ; so much to the Court of Great
Sessions and so little to the Council of the Marches.
The story of Catholicism in Wales after the Reformation
has never before been told, while innumerable volumes
have been published dealing with the history of Protes-
tant Nonconformity. No one has ever attempted to
give an account of the Courts of Great Sessions, im-
portant though the part was which they played in the
development of Wales, while Miss Skeel's exhaustive
monograph on the Council of the Marches has rendered
the task of writing its history a work of supererogation.
The difficulty about the last two chapters of this book
has been to decide what to leave out. I am indebted

vii

viii TO THE READER

to my friend, Prof. Garmon Jones of Liverpool Univer-
sity, for several valuable suggestions relating to the
Introduction and Chapters I., II., III., and IV. ; and
to my friend, Prof. Sir J. Morris Jones of Bangor
University College, for kindly looking through and
making some corrections in Chapter VII.

March 1st, 191 9.

THE

MAKING OF MODERN WALES

* INTRODUCTION

" Freedom and not servitude is the cure of anarchy,"
said Burke in his great speech on " Conciliation with
America," x " the profoundest manual of civil wisdom." 2
To statesmen of the " blood and iron school," that
plangent phrase is a meaningless and dangerous paradox.
It took the world unnumbered centuries to see even as
in a glass darkly the truth of that vital principle in the
government of men. The old-world conquerors, Sena-
cherib and Nebuchadnezzar, laid desolate the countries
which they had subdued. They rased to the ground
the cities which they had taken. They carried the con-
quered peoples into captivity. The Romans, after long
years of experience in aggression, discovered a better
way of turning their conquests to account. At one
time they were content with the economic exploitation
of their provinces. They spared the lives and they
tolerated the religion, the laws, and the customs of the
conquered, but it was only in order that they might
wring a heavier tribute from the helpless people. It
might be said of them, as Macaulay said of the English

1 Burke's Works (Bohn edit.), vol. ii. p. 487.

2 Lord Morley's Politics and History, p. 35.
w.m.yv. • A

2 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

in Bengal during Clive's absence in England after the
battle of Plassey, that they formed a government as
" oppressive as the most oppressive form of barbarian
despotism . . . with all the strength of civilisation." It
was only when the fierce energy of Rome and Italy had
been sapped by a long career of success and luxury,
and the Empire had to rely more and more for its pre-
servation on the manly vigour of the ruder provincials,
that better treatment was meted out to the inhabitants
of Britain and Gaul, of Spain and Africa. But^from
first to last, the Roman state, after it had once tran-
scended the limits of the Seven Hills, was founded on
force, and to the Gracchi and Brutus and Cato, lovers
of freedom though they were, as well as to the mild and
clement emperors, such as Trajan, Hadrian, and Marcus
Aurelius, Burke's maxim in its application to the vassals
of Rome would have been but as sounding brass or a
tinkling cymbal. The mighty fabric of the Roman
Empire fell before the onrush of the barbarian hordes
from the wastes and forests of Germany. The flame of
its civilisation was wellnigh extinguished ; there sur-
vived only the little spark that was jealously guarded
through the Dark Ages on the altar of the Catholic
Church. The rule of unqualified and ruthless force
returned with the triumph of the barbarians. Alaric
and Attila, the Saxons who overran Britain, the Northern
Vikings, and the predatory Danes waged war as piti-
lessly as Sargon or Tiglath-Pilezer. They made a desert
and called it peace. When William the Norman de-
stroyed for ever the Anglo-Saxon nation at Senlac, he
treated England as a conquered country. He divided
the land among his warriors, and he and his barons and
his knights ruled with absolute sway over the subject

INTRODUCTION 3

race. It was not until a century and a half ot intimate
contact had caused the two races to begin to assimilate
that the rights of the Saxon as well as the Norman came
to be safeguarded in the Great Charter of English liberty.
The case was different in countries where the conquered
race was unable or unwilling to be amalgamated with
its conquerors. In Wales, for example, the struggle for
national freedom went on for two centuries after the
Norman invasion. Scores of skirmishes and some
pitched battles were fought, but the spirit of the Cymry
was irrefragable. Castle after castle was built by the
invader, one square mile after another was conquered,
the terrors of excommunication were used by an en-
slaved Church to aid in the subjugation of a devout
people, and the remnant of the ancient race became
fewer and feebler one generation after another. Still
they fought on, and under the two Llewelyns it almost
seemed as if their stubborn gallantry might yet prevail.
It was only when Llewelyn the Last fell before the
might of " the greatest of the Plantagenets " that the
desperate struggle for national freedom was sullenly
abandoned. Edward I. by the Statute of Rhuddlan
endeavoured, with a statesmanship of which no other
contemporary ruler was capable, to effect a settlement
of the conquered Principality. He turned the patri-
mony of the Welsh Princes — Anglesea, Carnarvon, and
Merioneth in the north, Cardigan and Carmarthen in
the south — into shire-ground. He did not interfere with
the use of the Welsh language. He appointed a com-
mission to inquire into the Welsh laws and customs,
and some of them he allowed to remain in force. But
he adhered rigidly to one inflexible rule. No Welshman
was allowed to govern the country, to administer the

4 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

law, or to represent the sovereign authority. The
Government could be carried on by the King and hi?
officers alone. After the Glyndwr rebellion a still more
rigorous system was introduced. Burke reckoned that
there were " no less than fifteen acts of penal regula-
tion " passed by Parliament on the subject of Wales. 1
What was the result ? " Wales rid this kingdom like
an incubus ; it was an unprofitable and oppressive
burden ; and an Englishman travelling the country
could not go six yards from the high road without being
murdered."

It is abundantly clear that by the end of the fifteenth
century the Edwardian settlement had hopelessly broken
down. Sir John Wynn, in his History of the Gwydir
Family, describes the state of lawlessness and anarchy
which prevailed in Carnarvonshire, one of Edward's
" shire-grounds," after the close of the Wars of the
Roses. Private wars went on unchecked, family ven-
dettas were as rife and as ruthless as they afterwards
became in Corsica, life and property were insecure, the
arm of the law was powerless. Sooner than live in
constant hostility with his hereditary enemies in Car-
narvonshire, Sir John's great-grandfather Meredydd 2
migrated to the wilds of Denbighshire, where he dwelt
surrounded by outlaws. It was better, he said, to live
in obscurity in the valley of the Conway than to be at
continual strife with his kinsmen and neighbours in his
native county. " I shall find elbow-room," he said, " in
that vast country among the bondmen, and I had rather
fight with outlaws and thieves than with my own blood
and kindred, for if I live in mine house in Eifionydd
I must either kill mine own kinsmen or be killed by

1 Vol. ii. p. 485. 2 Meredydd ap Ieuan died in 1525.

INTRODUCTION 5

them." Ysbytty Ifan — the Hospice of the Knights of
St. John — which was near the exile's new home, was " a
wasps' nest, a lordship belonging to St. John of Jeru-
salem, which had privilege of sanctuary." Thieves and
murderers flocked thither, and the country for twenty
miles round suffered from their depredations. He could
not go to church on Sunday without bolting and barring
his house in Dolwyddelan, and stationing a watchman
on a rock, whence he could see both house and church.
He was always guarded by twenty stout archers, but
even then he never dared return by the way he came
for fear of ambush. Sir John described, too, the ruth-
less destruction of the Vale of Conway by the Earl of
Pembroke during the Wars of the Roses, burning every
house so that " the very stones of the ruins of manie
habitations, in and along my demaynes, carrying yet
the colour of the fire." Later on he says that " in
those days in that wild worlde every man stood upon
his guard and went not abroad but in sort and soe
armed, as if he went to the field to encounter with his
enemies." x Lord Herbert of Cherbury, in his fasci-
nating fragment of " Autobiography," throws light on the
condition of Montgomeryshire in the early part of the
sixteenth century. His great-grandfather, Sir Richard
Herbert of Montgomery, who died in 1539, was '" a
great suppressor of rebels, thieves, and outlaws," and
his son Edward Herbert, who continued his work in
Mid-Wales, is said to have been " noted to be a great
enemy to the outlaws and thieves of bis time, who
robbed in great numbers in the mountains of Mont-
gomeryshire, for the suppressing of whom he went both
night and day to the places where they were." The
1 History 0} the Gwydir Family.

6 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

poems of the Welsh bards of the fifteenth century, as
well as the preambles to the Welsh Statutes of Henry
VIII. and the numerous references in the State Papers,
which will require a more detailed notice later on, amply
confirm the traditions of the Wynn and Herbert
families.

Here, then, was the oft-recurring problem presenting
itself in an acute form. A small conquered people,
numbering probably not more than 6 or 7 per cent, of
the dominant race, out of sympathy with the law, its
makers, and its administrators, had been reduced in the
course of a little over two hundred years to a condition
of anarchy. But for the fact that literary activity was
never more pervading and Welsh poetry never burned
with a brighter flame than in the fifteenth century, one
would be tempted to describe the state of Wales between
1400 and 1542 as one of barbarism. In the ordinary
course of things it seemed inevitable that one of two
things must happen. Either the stronger nation, stung
to action by persistent provocation, would enter upon
a policy of strict and merciless repression against the
weaker, which would exterminate the one and brutalise.
the other ; or it would leave the weaker to welter in
fratricidal strife, only interfering when a direct and
organised attack was made on its own authority. Two
centuries after the Conquest of 1282, the condition of
Wales was comparable to the condition of a Balkan
state under Turkish rule a hundred years ago, or to
that of Albania at the beginning of this century. Nor
was its condition materially amended by the accession
of Henry Tudor to the English throne. As I shall show,
there was the same deplorable lack of " governance ,;
in Wales fifty years after the battle of Bosworth as was

INTRODUCTION 7

bewailed by Llawdden in the middle of the fifteenth
century. 1

Lecky, commenting on the effects of the Act of Union
of 1707 on the national character and social condition
of the Scottish people, asserts that " there are very few
instances on record in which a nation passed in so short
a time from a state of barbarism to a state of civilisation,
in which the tendencies and leading features of the
national character were so profoundly modified, and in
which the separate causes of the change were so clearly
discernible." 2 Far be it from me to accept Lecky's
sharp contrast between the " barbarism " of Scotland
in the seventeenth and her " civilisation " in the eigh-
teenth century. Scotland before 1707 had a better and
more diffused system of education than England, and
Fletcher of Saltoun was certainly more " civilised " than
the Squire Westerns of England. Even if by " bar-
barism " is meant lawlessness, and by " civilisation '
ordered liberty, it may be doubted if the Scotland of
the first half of the eighteenth century, with its seething
Jacobitism, its two Rebellions of 1715 and 1745, its
Porteous Riot in Edinburgh, and its blackmailing
caterans in the Highlands, was more law-abiding than
the Scotland of the seventeenth century. I am, how-
ever, only concerned to show that Wales is one
of ' the few instances " where the expeiience of
Scotland in the points mentioned by the historian was
surpassed.

' The march of the human mind is slow," said Burke

1 Ni a roem yr awr yma
Dreth aur am lywodraeth dda.

' We would give this hour a gold tax for good government."

2 Lecky, History of England, vol. ii. p. 320.

8 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

in his reference to the precedent of Wales. 1 ' It was
not until after two hundred years discovered that, by
an eternal law, Providence has decreed vexation to
violence, and poverty to rapine. Your ancestors did,
however, at length open their eyes to the ill husbandry
of injustice. They found that the tyranny of a free
people could of all tyrannies the least be endured ; and
that laws made against a whole nation were not the
most effectual methods for securing its obedience.
Accordingly in the 27th year of Henry VIII. the course
was entirely altered. ... In the 35th of that reign a
complete and not ill-proportioned representation by
counties and boroughs was bestowed upon Wales by
Act of Parliament. From that moment, as by a charm,
the tumults subsided, obedience was restored, peace,
order and civilisation followed in the train of liberty.
When the day-star of the English constitution had
arisen in their hearts, all was harmony within and
without."

This glowing passage, describing the destruction of
" barbarism " with the brightness of the coming of the
English constitution, is too roseate for the historian's
prose. Yet in substance the great orator's account is
borne out by the facts of the case. Never was there a
country seemingly more unfit for freedom than was the
Wales of Henry VIII. ; never was statesmanship more
speedily and more abidingly justified of a novel, a bold,
and a generous experiment. Casting aside tradition and
precedent, turning a deaf ear to the remonstrances and
protests of his officials, Henry VIII. determined to
associate the subject people with their own government.
It was probably the accident of his own descent from a
1 Conciliation with America, vol. ii. p. 486.

INTRODUCTION 9

Welsh stock and the fervent personal loyalty of the
Cymry to the scion of the House of Cadwallader of the
Golden Torque that inclined him to make the experi-
ment. But it was no accident that the experiment
proved a success. It was due, as Burke remarked, to
an " eternal law," which is as certain in its operation
as the law of gravitation.

There was no precedent for such a policy, either in
ancient or in modern times. Burke cites three other
instances — Chester, Durham, and Ireland. But the
cases of the Palatinates of Chester and Durham are not
parallel, for their inhabitants were not of different blood
from those of Yorkshire or Warwickshire, and they were
in no sense a subject race. The case of Ireland is not
apposite, for the " Welshery " were entrusted with
responsibilities and endowed with privileges which were
for many generations denied to the " wild Irish." l It
was not only a policy without precedent, it was contrary
to all the traditions of English statesmanship and to
the spirit of the age. Hallam has quoted, with pardon-
able indignation, the description given by Sir Thomas
Smith of the attempts made by the Tudors to curtail
the independence of Trial by Jury — " the standard
record of primeval liberty." 2 Yet it was at this period,
when the sanctity of Trial by Jury was being invaded
by the high-handed interference of the Star Chamber
and the browbeating of judges — and in the case of Wales
and the Marches by Statute — that the system was
extended to the most disturbed portions of what is
now known as the Principality of Wales. It was an
age whose tendency was towards the transformation of

1 See e.g. Lecky's Ireland, pp. 1-4.

2 Hallam, History of England, p. 49 (1871 edition).

io THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

the limited monarchies of the later Middle Ages into
absolute monarchies. Representative institutions were
decaying in Spain and in France ; Henry VIII. was
more absolute than any Plantagenet. 1 But at the
height of his power he conceded the right of parlia-
mentary representation, for the first time, to a country
which as a whole was indifferent to the privilege. The
experiment was launched at a time seemingly most
inopportune. The whole fabric of society was tottering
through the convulsion caused by the Reformation ;
the old faith, the old learning, the old science were
passing away " like an unsubstantial pageant faded."
" The paths trodden by the footsteps of ages were
broken up ; old things were passing away ; and the
faith and the life of ten centuries were dissolving like
a dream." 2 The breach with Rome had become com-
plete, and by dissolving the monasteries, Henry had,
with regal insolence, brought home the real meaning of
the revolution to every part of his realm. Nowhere, as
we shall see, was the change more unwelcome than in
Wales, in those days the home of lost causes and im-
possible dreams. The commons of the North of England
spontaneously rose against the ruthless king ; for the
first and only time the throne of Henry was put in
jeopardy. At the moment when the Pilgrimage of
Grace was most formidable, Chapuys, the clever Swiss
who acted as Imperial Ambassador at the Court of
St. James, assured the Emperor Charles V. that Wales

1 During the later years of Henry VII. and in the reign of
Henry VIII. up to the fall of Wolsey, Parliament was practically
powerless. Henry VIII. after 1529 called it together almost
every year, and treated it with respect. (Pollard's Henry VIII.,
pp. 236-266.)

2 Froude's History of England, ch. i.

INTRODUCTION n

was ripe for revolt. Bishop Rowland Lee, the President
of the Council of the Marches, was convinced on other
grounds that Wales was not ready for the grant of a
constitution. He begged the king " not to allow the
Statute to go forward." Yet it was at this dark and
untoward hour that the boon of a constitution was
extended to Wales. Even the Parliament which granted
it was sceptical of the result. It gave the king the
power to repeal or suspend it. That power was never
exercised. The grant of a free constitution was an
instantaneous success. The same " wonderful issue " 1
attended it in Wales as has since attended it in Canada,
in South Africa, in every part of the British dominions
in which it has been tried.

" A better people to govern than the Welsh Europe
holdeth not," was the testimony of Sir Henry Sidney,
whom Queen Elizabeth sent to govern Wales (1559-1586)
as President of the Council of the Marches. Sidney took
an intelligent and sympathetic interest in the people
over whom he ruled. It was owing to his advice and
active encouragement that Dr. Powel published, in 1584,
his History of Cambria, and the sumptuous beauty of
the book attests the generosity of the patron. In the
preface Dr. Powel bears witness to the change that had
been wrought in Wales by the legislation of Henry VIII.
" Concerning the alteration of the estate, there was
never anie thing so beneftciall to the common people of
Wales as the uniting of the countrie to the crowne and
kingdom of England, whereby not only the maladie and
hurt of the dissention that often happened between the
Princes of the countrie, which they ruled, is now taken

1 Mr. Balfour's speech on the South African Confederation,
15th August, 1909.

12 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

awaie, but also an uniformitie of government estab-
lished, whereby all controversies are examined, heard,
and decided within the countrie : so that now the
countrie of Wales (I dare boldly affirm it) is in as good
order for quietness and obedience as anie country in
Europe : for if the ruler and teachers be good and doo
their duties, the people are willing to learn, readie to
obeie, and loath to offend or displease."

" Surely those lawes have brought Wales to great
civilitie for that evill government that was here in ould
time," wrote another Elizabethan, 1 " for it is as safe
travailing for a stranger here in Wales as in any part
of Christendome, whereas in old time it is said robberies
and murthers were very common." In another passage
he is even more emphatic. " No other country in
England so flourished in one hundred yeares as Wales
hath don, sithence the government of H. 7 to this tyme,
insomuch that if o r ffathers weare nowe lyvinge they
would thinke it som straunge cuntrey inhabited with a
forran Nation, so altered is the cuntrey and cuntreymen,
the people changed in hertt w th in and the land altered
in hewe w th out, from evill to good, and from badd to
better."

Another witness, who knew the country intimately
and who was by no means too favourably inclined to
the " Welshery," may be cited. In 1575, Gerard, the
Vice-President of the Court of the Council of the Marches,
and afterwards Lord Chancellor of Ireland, prepared a

1 George Owen's " Dialogue of the Government of Wales "
(1595), printed in Part Hi. of Owen's Pembrokeshire, pp. 91-92.
Cf. Churchyard's Worthiness of Wales (1587), Introduction, "There
is neither hewe nor cry (for a robbery) in many hundred miles
ryding, so whether it be for fear of justice, love of God, or good
disposition, small robberies or none at all are heard of there."

INTRODUCTION 13

memorandum for Elizabeth's ministers, entitled "A Dis-
course on the State of Wales." He is emphatic in his
testimony to the good order prevailing in the Princi-
pality. " At this daie," he wrote, " it is to be affirmed
that in Wales universallie are as civille people and
obedient to lawe as are in England. Throughowte
Wales in every respect Justice embrased and with as
indifferent trialles executed as in England, during the
tyme of her Majestes Reigne, except 3° or 4° r petty
Corners, Noe treason hard of, very seldome murder,
in vi years togeather, vnneth on Robbery (committed
by the highe waye) harde of. Stealinge of cattell is
the chief evill that generall moste annoyeth the
countrey."

An even more authoritative and striking testimony to
the miraculous change which had been effected in Wales
was borne by the preamble to the statute 21 Jac. i,
c. IP. The laws of Wales, it is said, were for the most
part agreeable to those of England, and were obeyed
" with great alacrity," and the greatness of the " quiet '
which prevailed was used as an argument against " any
further change or innovation."

Almost alone of later commentators, Burke has
ascribed the credit of this " wonderful issue " to the
right cause. Gerard, Vice-President of the Court of the
Marches, in his report to the Council in 1575, with the
shortsightedness of an alien official, while recognising
the effect, mistook the cause. He set down all the
credit to the stern and resolute policy of the " stout
Bishop," Rowland Lee, who had so terrified the people
that " within three or four years the fear of punishment
wroughte firste in theym the obedience theye nowe have
grown into." Subsequent writers have followed Gerard,

14 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

and Bishop Rowland has come to be regarded as the
pacifier and civiliser of Wales. But a calm and dis-
passionate review of the circumstances will set the
Bishop's achievement in its right perspective. He was
in office as President of the Council of the Marches for
less than nine years (1534-January, 1543), and however
vigorous his administration and ruthless his methods, it
would require more than nine years of resolute govern-
ment to change the habits and to transform the char-
acter of a whole people. Nor should it be forgotten
that the Bishop's energies were limited to the border
counties. His letters, still to be seen among the State
Papers, bear witness to his incessant activities in
Cheshire and Shropshire, Denbigh and Flint, Mont-
gomeryshire and Radnorshire, and occasionally Mon-
mouthshire and Brecknockshire. With the rest of Wales
he had little or nothing to do. We have no record that
he ever visited Carmarthenshire, Pembrokeshire, and
Cardiganshire in the south, or Merionethshire, Carnar-
vonshire, and Anglesea in the north. He himself states
that Merioneth and Cardigan, though shire-ground, were
as disturbed and lawless as the Borderland, and we
know, from Sir John Wynn's lively narrative, that
Carnarvonshire was as turbulent as any portion of Wales.
Whatever effect the Bishop's administration may have
had in the eastern counties, his influence can hardly have
extended to the rest of the Principality, which he never
even saw. But not only those parts which were under
the Bishop's rule, but the whole of Wales, settled down
to cultivate the arts of peace after the time of Henry
VIII. We hear, it is true, of the " Gwylliaid Cochion
Mawddwy " (the Red Bandits of Mawddwy) in the reign
of Edward VI. ; one of the king's judges even was slain

INTRODUCTION 15

in one of the wild gorges of Merioneth while he was
going circuit. In Gerard's time there were still three
or four disturbed and lawless " petty corners," and
George Owen specifically mentions the north-east part
of Cardiganshire, and the wild districts of Arwystli, as
being dangerous to the traveller. But on the whole,
and speaking generally, Wales became peaceful and law-
abiding in the second half of the sixteenth century. The
fact that every part of the Principality showed the same
tendency at the same time is proof that the influences
at work were general and not particular, permanent and
not transient. Wales was transfigured ; the habits,
customs, and even the character — the " Welshery " — of
Welshmen were changed, not because of " the fear of
punishment," but because the grant of free institutions
had removed the causes which had led to the growth of
the evils. Dr. David Powel, in his History of Cambria,
and George Owen, as has already been noted, took a
sounder view as to the forces which had led to the
pacification of Wales.

Wales became, and has ever since remained, a
loyal, comparatively crimeless, and easily governed
portion of the British Dominions. In spite of the
changes which the influx of strangers has wrought in
the social condition of the industrial districts of
South Wales, the proud boast of the Welsh poet as
to the freedom of the people from crime is still
substantially true. 1

A minor, but interesting, question has often been
asked. Who was responsible for initiating and carrying

1 Pa wlad wedir, siarad sydd

Mor Ian a Chymru lonydd ?

' What land, when all is said, so pure as peaceful Wales ? "

16 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

through the experiment of killing " Welshery " by trust-
ing Welshmen ? 1 The Statute of 1542 refers to " peti-
tions " from the people of Wales. One such petition,
which was obviously composed before the Statute, 27
Henry VIII., was passed, is set out at length in Lord
Herbert of Cherbury's History of the Reign of Henry
VIII. It is not known who the author or authors of
the petition may have been. In spite of some quaint
and whimsical passages, it is evident that the writer was
not only conversant in no ordinary degree with the
history of his country, but also that he was no mean
advocate. Nicholas, in his Annals of the Counties of
Wales, presumably on the authority of Theophilus Jones,
the historian of Breconshire, states that its author was
Sir John Price of Brecon. Probably the surmise is
correct. Price was a protege of William Herbert, first
Earl of Pembroke. If Price was the author, that would
account for the fact that a copy of the document was
preserved in the Herbert archives. Sir John was the

1 " It is remarkable that the person by whom this Statute
(of 1542) was framed or introduced into Parliament is not known.
The author of the Observations on the Statute mentions the
names of some persons who, from their character and situation,
might have been disposed to such a work ; but he mentions
them merely as conjectures, and states that the Principality
must ever remain ignorant of their greatest benefactor." (Oldnall
Russell's Practice, Introduction, p. xxvii.) If George Owen is to
be relied on, some alterations in the Statute, as originally drafted,
were made during its passage through Pariiament. For example,
the districts of Llanstephan, Llanddowror, and Laugharne
were added to Carmarthenshire (" Dialogue " in Owen's Pembroke-
shire, ii. p. 105), and Haverfordwest was constituted into a
separate county borough (ib. p. 113) through the machinations
of Sir Thomas Johnes, M.P. for Pembrokeshire, and the member
for Carmarthenshire. It would appear, therefore, that repre-
sentatives from Wales had taken their seats in Parliament
before the Act of 1542 was passed.

INTRODUCTION

17

author of the first book ever printed in Welsh. 1 His
interest in Welsh history is well known. When he was
a member of the Court of the Marches, he encouraged,
in his old age, the publication of Dr. Powel's History of
Cambria. Moreover, he was the foremost Welsh lawyer
of the age. His close connection by marriage with
Thomas Cromwell 2 lends colour to the suggestion. If,
as the Act relates, the impulse came from Wales, it must
have come from some one who had the ear of Henry's
ministers, and of all contemporary Welshmen Sir John
Price stands out as the man who, by his influence in
high quarters and by his confidence in the political
capacity and natural generosity of the Welsh people,
can with some certainty be named as the inspirer of the
liberal policy of Henry VIII. towards Wales.

To Thomas Cromwell, also, some of the credit must
be ascribed. His character and career are even more
mysterious than those of his master, but of his greatness

1 Yn y Llyvr hwnn, published in London 1546. Reprinted
(Ed. J. H. Davies, 1902) in the " Guild of Graduate Series "
(Jarvis & Foster, Bangor).

* The following table, taken from J. H. Davies's edition of
Yn y Llyvr hwnn, shows the connection of Sir John Price with
the Cromwells :

Walter Cromwell

William Morgan,
Eglwyswen

Henry Wykes,
Putney

Morgan Williams,
Putney = Catherine
Cromwell

I

Richard Williams,

ancestor of

Oliver Cromwell

John Williams
= Joan

I
Joan* Williams

= Sir John Price

Elizabeth Catherine
= Thomas = Morgan
Cromwell Williams

Gregory

Richard

W.M.W.

18 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

there can be no question. He was Secretary of State
in 1534, when Rowland Lee was sent to Ludlow. He
was almost at the zenith of his power when the Act of
Union was passed. He acquiesced in — perhaps even
suggested — the appointment of Welshmen to be Justices
of the Peace. Before he fell, in the summer of 1540,
the Commission which was to prescribe the limits of the
counties, to divide them into hundreds, and to appoint
the county towns in Wales — to complete, in fine, the
making of Modern Wales — had commenced its work.
He may not have been the inspirer of the policy, but he
was, at least, a willing and active instrument in carrying
it out. Its very novelty and audacity would have
appealed to that adventurous spirit, whose motto was
" to make or mar." x

But no estimate of the forces at work in the regenera-
tion of Wales would be complete which failed to take
into account the character and personality of the king.
To one school of historians 2 Henry VIII. is the very

1 Though it seems certain that Cromwell became a convert to
the liberal policy, it is noteworthy that, as late as 1533, he still
belonged to the old school. Throughout that year the words
" the necessity of looking into the state of Wales " constantly
occur in his Remembrances. The chief memoranda recorded
were, that according to the old laws no Welshman was to hold
office in Wales ; that murders committed in Wales and the
Marches might be tried in the Star Chamber ; that the Justice
of Chester should not hold his office by deputy ; and that the
payment of fines and forfeitures should be rigorously enforced
on Welshmen convicted in the Star Chamber or before the King's
Commissioners in the Marches.

2 Perhaps it is inaccurate to describe these writers as a " school
of historians," for their estimate of the character and policy of
Henry VIII. has long ago been exploded. Froude's estimate
of the statesmanship of Henry VIII. is well known, and though he
was too much of an apologist for even the atrocities of his reign,
substantially his estimate of Henry's policy has prevailed.
I cite below Stubbs's penetrating criticism, which has been

INTRODUCTION 19

type of a savage and bloodthirsty tyrant, the creature
of caprice, the slave of passion, incapable of generous
and far-sighted statesmanship. In their view, Henry
was so bent on pursuing his personal quarrel with Rome,
and so taken up with the excitements of his changing
amours, that he was either blind or indifferent to what
was passing in the domain of higher statesmanship, and
that he remained a mere passive and careless spectator
of events which he had neither the will nor the capacity
to control and direct. To the other school of historians,
Henry is the dominant personality of his age, " every
inch a king," " the majestic lord who broke the bonds
of Rome " not from passion or caprice but from deep
and far-sighted design. " The great factor in the whole
complication," said Stubbs, 1 " is the strong, intelligent,
self-willed force of the king ; that alone seems to give
purpose and consistency to the eventful policy of the
period ; Henry VIII. is neither the puppet of parties,
nor the victim of circumstances, nor the shifty politician,
nor the capricious tyrant, but a man of light and leading,
of power, force, and foresight, a man of opportunities,
stratagems, and surprises, but not the less of iron will
and determined purpose ; purpose not at once realised
or systematised, but widening, deepening, and strength-
ening as the way opens before it." He regards Henry
" as the main originator of the greatest and most critical
changes of his reign," and asserts that " no minister,
great or small, after the fall of Wolsey, can claim any-
adopted by Pollard and Fisher. Even Gairdner, while denounc-
ing in severe terms Henry's savage and bloodthirsty character,
especially in his latter years, and while emphasising the essentially
selfish nature of his policy, does not deny hisjiar-sighted states-
manship. (See Lollardy and the Reformation.)

1 Stubbs, Mediaeval and Modem History, pp. 283, 306, etc.

20 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

thing like an original share in determining the royal
policy." Such a theory, it is true, necessitates the belief
in a great development of design and new purpose in
the king as his reign proceeded, but the historian does
not shrink from adopting that solution. " From the
very beginning of his reign he is finding out what he
can do." He ruled through his ministers and council,
but " on the whole Henry was his own chief counsellor."
This estimate of the king's character accords with the
development of the Welsh policy of his reign. At first
Wales was ignored. In 1525, when the death of Sir
Rhys ap Thomas forced the affairs of the Principality
upon his notice, the king was content merely to revive
his father's policy by sending the Princess Mary to hold
her court at Ludlow. As he became aware of the anarchy
that prevailed, he resorted to stronger measures. He
sent Rowland Lee to reduce the land to order. But
with increasing knowledge came a greater grasp of the
situation and a clearer perception of the dimensions of
the problem. It may be that he was stirred to unusual
effort by affection for the country from which the Tudors
had sprung, and by a belated remembrance of his father's
dying charge that he should deal tenderly with the land
of their origin. He authorised, even if he did not suggest,
the grant of a constitution to the distracted country.
Had he been a mere passive and listless spectator of
events, content merely to register the decrees of his
ministers, the Welsh policy which was commenced in
1534 would have ended with the fall of Cromwell in
1540. By abandoning that policy, Henry would have
followed the line of least resistance. The Lord President
was reluctant, if not hostile. The other officials in
Wales viewed it with alarm and dismay. There was no

INTRODUCTION 21

member of his Council who cared enough about Wales,
or who was endowed with sufficient insight and fore-
sight, to urge upon the king the continuance of his pro-
gressive policy. It would have been easy for Henry,
had he so wished, to exercise the powers conferred upon
him by Parliament to suspend or repeal the Statute of
1535. The fact that the policy was neither altered nor
retarded after Cromwell's fall — that, indeed, it was con-
tinued, developed, and completed two years after his
death — affords the strongest evidence that the king took
an active, personal, and intelligent interest in its pro-
motion. It has been said that Henry VIII. was the
greatest king that ever ruled over England, because he
always had his own way. In his ecclesiastical policy,
in his dealings with Scotland x and Ireland, in his rela-
tions with the great powers of the Continent, he was
invariably fortunate. No Pavia or Innsbruck checked
his victorious career. But in no department of govern-
ment was he more successful than in his dealings with
the land of the Tudors ; in no other direction did he dis-
play greater qualities of statesmanship. With unerring
skill he diagnosed the evils from which the country was
suffering. With supreme and serene courage he applied
the remedy. His policy was one of inspired common
sense, which no statesman, bereft of sympathy and
imagination, could have conceived. The stage upon
which he was called to display these great qualities was
small, and on that account the real magnitude of his
achievement has been overlooked. English historians
have treated it in a superficial and perfunctory manner,

1 He did not, it is true, actually succeed in bringing about the
betrothal of the Prince of Wales with Mary Stuart ; but he
would never have perpetrated the blunder of Protector Somerset's
" rough wooing " which ended at Pinkie.

22 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

when they have deigned to refer to it at all. The
measure of the man is brought to an impartial test in
his Welsh policy. Here at least he was stirred by no
selfish or ignoble motives, and there can be no question
about his success.

There is one feature which distinguishes the Union of
Wales with England from that of Scotland and that of
Ireland. It is notorious that ths Act of Union of 1801
was never popular in Ireland. It was passed through
the Irish Parliament with difficulty, by wholesale bribery
and corruption, and it has remained a festering sore in
the political and social life of the people to this day.
Nor was the Scottish Act of Union popular at the time,
or for years after it had become operative, with the
people of Scotland. Burton has shown how, for one or
two generations, it was bitterly resented by nearly all
classes. Smollett, in the middle of the eighteenth
century, and Sir Walter Scott, in the early years of the
last century, did not disguise their hostility to it. Scot-
land became reconciled to the Union when the effect of
the generous commercial clauses came to be experienced.
" The sacrifice of a nationality," observes Lecky, with
a dry cynicism only to be found in a utilitarian philo-
sopher, "is a measure which naturally produces such
intense and such enduring discontent that it should
never be exacted unless it can be accompanied by some
political or material advantages that are so great, and
at the same time so evident, as to prove a corrective." x

The union of Wales with England was never unpopular

in Wales, and in the course of the four centuries that

have since elapsed there has never been a petition from

the people of Wales for its repeal. The reason for the

1 Lecky, History of England, vol. ii. p. 303.

INTRODUCTION 23

instantaneous and permanent popularity of the Union
in Wales lay in the fact that it did not entail any " sacri-
fice of nationality," as was to some extent the case with
Scotland and Ireland. Wales became, for the first time,
a coherent and organised country ; before that time it
was not even a geographical expression. It might have
been expected that Welshmen, whose devotion to their
mother-tongue has always been profound and passionate,
would have resented its supersession as the official
language of the Principality by English. The reference
in the preamble of the Act of Union to the Welsh tongue
is not flattering or even true, and there can be little
doubt that neither King Henry nor his ministers re-
garded with any great measure of forbearance the pro-
longation of its life. On the other hand, we need not
suppose that the ostracism of the vernacular tongue was
as complete in official circles as it afterwards became.
The Justices of the Peace who were entrusted with the
task of administering the law were probably nearly all
Welsh-speaking Welshmen, for the gentry of Wales only
abandoned their native speech in the eighteenth and
nineteenth centuries. Gerard mentions the fact that one
of his judicial colleagues on the Court of the Marches
knew Welsh, and Elizabeth's ministers early became
impressed with the desirability of having Welsh-speaking
judges in Wales. Queen Elizabeth, acting under the
advice of Sir William Cecil, himself the third in descent
from a genuine old Welsh family — the Seisyllts of Allt-
yr-ynys — was a patron of Welsh letters. Early in her
reign the Scriptures were ordered to be translated into
Welsh. " If it please God once to send them the Bible
in their owne language, according to the godlie lawes
alreadie established," wrote Dr. Powel, in his Preface to

24 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

the History of Cambria, " the countrie of Wales will be
comparable to anie countrie in England." Within a
few years his pious wish was fulfilled. Bishop Morgan's
Welsh Bible appeared in 1588.

Similarly, it might have been expected that Welshmen
would have preferred to cling to the old laws and customs
of the country than to adopt a strange system of land
tenure and a law of inheritance to which they were
averse. 1 But though the Welsh peasant has never quite
grasped the conditions of English land tenure or appre-
ciated the justice or utility of the law of primogeniture,
there never has been any feeling of hostility to the
Union because it was accompanied by these changes.
Never, indeed, was there such a violent change effected
with so little resistance. The Welsh are essentially a
conservative race, who are keenly sensitive to the living
influence of the past. Chapuys, the Imperial Ambas-
sador, emphasised the distress among the Welsh, " from
whom, by Act of Parliament, the King has just taken
away their native laws, customs, and privileges, which
is the very thing they can endure least patiently." Yet
they passively allowed King Henry to break with Rome,
to dissolve the monasteries, and to alter the religious
services, to place the Welsh language under an official
ban, to extirpate the old Welsh laws and customs, and

1 It should be remembered that there had been a gradual decay
of the tribal system. See, for instance, an account given in the
Mostyn MSS. No. 158 of the way Sir Rhys ap Thomas treated
the yeomen. " For I have heard many people from that part
of the county (lying between the Tawe and the Towy) say that
within 20 miles around the place where old Sir Rhys ap Thomas
dwelt there was not in the possession of the poor yeomen any
land which, if he fancied it, he did not obtain, either as a gratuity
or by purchase, without consulting the owners " (Hist. Comm.
Report on the Mostyn MSS. Intro, p. x.).

INTRODUCTION 25

to revolutionise the whole social and political condition
of the country without a protest or a murmur. The
reason for this tame acceptance of their sovereign's will
was twofold. First, there was the passionate loyalty
to the Welsh dynasty, a far more potent force with
Welshmen of the sixteenth century than we are some-
times disposed to credit. " All the waters of Wye will
not wash away your Majesty's Welsh blood," exclaimed
Fluellen to Henry V. What was a jest to the play-
wright was sober earnest to the countrymen of the
Tudors. Secondly, these changes were accompanied by
those " material and political advantages " which are
said to act as a " corrective " in such cases. Wales,
even more than England, had suffered from " lack of
governance " in the fifteenth century, and had materially
benefited by the change. " Good government," as
Llawdden said, was what Wales wanted, and it was a
source of peculiar pride to Welshmen that they obtained
it from a Welsh dynasty.

George Owen, who understood Wales and Welshmen
as few men have done, comments on the paradox of a
conservative people accepting, with cordial readiness,
the gravest changes in their estate. In his " Dialogue
on the Government of Wales " x he makes Bartholl draw
his interlocutor's attention to this singular fact.

' Bar. : I much marvaile how upon the first alteracion
of the government of Wales (when King Henry

1 P. 91, part iii. of Owen's Pembrokeshire. Cf. also ibid. p. 53.
" Wheras before the sayd statute of Henry VIII wee in Wales
had no such officers (as J.P.'s), nor any o n man almost of o"
Nation that bare any authoritye in the common-wealth. But
such officers as wee had in Wales were for the most part straungers
of other cuntreys lyving on the spoyle of the poor afflicted
Welshmen."

26 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

VIII utterlie abolished the Welsh lawes and
brought in the English lawes) the counties re-
ceived the same quietlie and w th out great grudg-
ing and some rebellion ; for new government and
alteration of auntient lawes is not easily receaved
into any commonwealth w th out tumultes, and
innovation in government is accounted very
dangerous in a commonwealth. And yet I heare
not of you y 1 Wales repined at altering their
lawes or inducing a new government.

" Demetus : So it is dangerous to alter anything in
a well-governed Commonwealth such as Wales
then was not. But to such as live in bondage
and slaverie, innovacions and alteracions from
Crueltie to Justice are sweet and pleasant ; and
then we y e poore Welshmen y l were cruellie
oppressed by o r governors, I mean the Strangers
that were Stewards, Justices, Sherifes and others,
who had law to judge as pleased them, and not
to Justine as we deserved, were very glad of those
new lawes, and embraced the same w th joyfull
hartes : and this caused those Lawes to be
receaved so quietlie, wheras in times past many
a bloudie battaile was fought before they receaved
the cruell English Lawes and Lawgivers wherew th
they were oppressed."

I purpose in the following pages to trace in more
detail, among other things, the steps in the development
and success of this policy of associating a subject race
with their own government — a policy which we have
been of late years timorously and tentatively trying in
India. The experiment was much in advance of any

INTRODUCTION 27

conception of government that prevailed before that
time. It was perhaps fortunate that the experiment
was not first tried in corpore vili, on a people who had
been rendered sullen and desperate, not only by long
years of oppression, but by the fact that the reigning
dynasty was alien in blood and sympathy. Happily in
Wales, in spite of racial antipathies, there was a real
attachment to and pride in the Tudor king, " bearing
his name and blood from us." 1 No doubt that fact
helped to make for the success of the experiment, but
the success was none the less due to an inexorable and
eternal law of human nature, which happened to be
first put to the test in the case of Wales. Its shining
success made it come to be regarded in after-times as
an inspiration, and on the principles upon which Henry
VIII. proceeded in his pacification of Wales has been
based the stately edifice of the British Empire. There
is no finality in human affairs, no rest for " the ever
climbing footsteps of the world." O'Hagan, one of the
poets of young Ireland, sang seventy years ago :

There never lived a nation yet
That ruled another well.

The rhetoric of the Irish " Rebel " has become the
gospel of the League of Nations.

Even while we contemplate, with pride and thankful-
ness, the success of the partial experiment which was
attempted in Wales, it is impossible to shut one's eyes
to the fact that the result was not an unmixed benefit
to Wales. In process of time the Welsh language,
which has the longest literary tradition of any modern
language in Europe, was dangerously, though happily

1 Petition : set out in Lord Herbert of Cherbury's Life of
Henry VIII.

28 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

not fatally, wounded in the house of her friends ; the
self-respect of a proud and ancient race whose " frank-
ness " in the presence of their superiors was remarked
on with complacent satisfaction by Giraldus Cambrensis.
was trodden under foot and almost destroyed ; the
piety of a devout and religious people was undermined
by the neglect of their new rulers ; the democratic
culture, the secular possession and abiding glory of the
Cymry, wellnigh disappeared under the blight of a
fatuous policy of Anglicisation ; and the self-reliance of
men who in Tudor times were of the Royal Tribe, and
who before those days bore themselves with the proud
self-esteem of men who had a stake in the land of their
birth, gave way to unreasoning diffidence under the
harsh land laws of the English and the cold indifference
of the Stuarts and the Hanoverians. I hope, before my
task is done, to show how, almost without any patronage
from the State or any assistance from great and wealthy
personages, but by their own native energy, this

Ancient folk speaking an ancient speech
And cherishing in their bosoms all their past,

have renewed their youth like the eagle and " kindled
their undazzled eyes at the full mid-day beam " of high
endeavour and adventure, and restored " the old fair
treasure of their native speech " to its appropriate
position, to be the study of the learned, the instructress
of the young, and the familiar friend and companion of
her gifted children.

CHAPTER I
WALES AFTER THE CONQUEST : 1282-1542

Before the reign of Henry VIII. the Principality of
Wales was much smaller and less important than the
tract of country to which we apply that name. After
the fall of Llewelyn in 1282 the Principality was annexed
to the English Crown, and divided into the ' three
ancient shires of North Wales," viz. Anglesea, Carnarvon,
and Merioneth. Flint, which was at one time treated
as a parcel of the Palatine County of Chester, was finally
annexed to Wales in the reign of Edward II. Car-
marthen and Cardigan — the patrimony of the Princes
of Dinevor — alone of the districts of South Wales,
became shire-ground in the time of Edward I., with
their own sheriffs and courts. The rest of Wales was
known as " the Marches," which was under the rule of
no less than 143 Lords Marcher. The distinctive mark
of a Lordship Marcher was the castle, for it was the
badge and symbol that the neighbouring lands had
been won by conquest. " There is scarce a castle in
Wales, being in number 143 castles, but is known at
this day to have been builded by some English lord or
other." x Brevis uomini regis non currit in Wallia was
true of all the Lordships Marcher except the County

1 Owen's Pembrokeshire, pt. iii. p. III.

29

30 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

Palatine of Pembroke, " which was counted part of
England, and therefore called Little England beyond
Wales. Neither was there any sheriff or other officers
of y e king to execute any of y e kinges writs or pre-
cepts in Wales. . . . Therefore these lordes themselves
were forced of necessity to execute lawes of sove-
rayne governors over their tenants and people in
those strange countreys and lordships subdued by
them." x

Naturally, as there were one hundred and forty-three
Lords Marcher exercising semi-regal authority in various
parts of Wales, great diversity of law and practice pre-
vailed. Primogeniture prevailed in some lordships,
while in others the old Welsh system of gavelkind sur-
vived. In some lordships the two systems remained
side by side, the eldest son inheriting in the English
portions of the march, while among the Welsh subjects
of the land, the old Welsh custom still lingered. In
other lordships again, though gavelkind prevailed, land
would pass by feoffment, and not by surrender, and
these were called " lands of English tenure and Welch
dole." 2 But " many lordes did utterly extirpat both
Welsh lawes and Welsh dole, and wrought all as in
England : and these matters and customs were per-
mitted or denied in every lordship as pleased y e first
conquerors thereof." 3

The greatest of the Lordships Marcher were the County
Palatine of Pembroke and the lordship of Glamorgan,
which were organised on the same lines as English

1 Owen's Pembrokeshire, pt. iii. p. 139.

2 "Kyfraith Saesneg ag rhan Kymraig " (Owen's Pembroke-
shire, iii. 148).

8 Owen's Pembrokeshire, pt. iii. p. 147.

WALES AFTER THE CONQUEST : 1282-1542 31

counties. 1 The county of Pembroke was, however, less
extensive than the English-speaking part of modern
Pembrokeshire. It did not include Lamphey, Haver-
fordwest, Walwyn's Castle, Slebech, and Narberth.
Dewisland was under the Bishop, and Kemmes was a
separate lordship. 2 The Lordship of Glamorgan was
also smaller than the modern county. The Lordship
of Gower was outside its boundaries as well as the
' Blaenau," the hill districts where the Welsh dwelt
under their own chiefs and enjoyed their own laws and
customs. The Lordship, from the time when Robert of
Gloucester married Fitzhamon's daughter, became an
appanage of the great western earldom. The Lordship
proper, the Corpus Comitatus, consisted of thirty-six
knight's fees which did suit to the castle of Cardiff,
where the sheriff held his monthlv court, and the Chan-
cellor on the day following for " matters of conscience."
The " members " consisted of the twelve chief lordships,
which had like regal jurisdiction, except that a writ of
error lay to the Chancery of Glamorgan, and that the
suitors, and not the presiding officer, were the judges.
The possessions of the Cathedral of Llandaff and of the
religious houses were also held of the lord, who even
claimed to have the gift of the bishopric. Both Palati-
nates were governed by the laws and customs of Eng-
land. 3 The old " shire-ground," consisting of the five
" ancient counties " of North and South Wales, was
administered, as far as might be, as if it was English

1 Both Pembroke and Glamorgan were organised as shires
long before the " Conquest" of Wales in 1282, the former as
early as Henry I.

* Tout's "Welsh Shires," Y Cymmrodor, vol. ix. pt. ii.

3 Dr. Henry Owen, " English Law in Wales," p. 17 ; Y
Cymmrodor, vol. xiv.

32 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

" shire-ground," though a modicum of Welsh laws
and customs had been preserved by the Statute of
Rhuddlan.

The towns were few, small, and of little importance.
They sprang up around the baronial castle, and partook
more of the character of English garrisons than of
centres of trade and commerce. " Although most of
the inhabitants of those towns are become now more
Welsh in language and manner of living," wrote George
Owen, in his " Treatise of the Lordshipps Marchers,"
" yet doe manye retayne y e English names, and most
places about those townes doe give great libertyes to
Englishmen of those townes." * Some years earlier, in
I 587, John Penry, the first Welsh Nonconformist, said
that " there is never a market town in Wales where
English is not as rife as Welsh." They held their
liberties by charter from their lords, and were governed
by mayors and bailiffs, or by stewards.

The existence of so many Lords Marcher, armed with
such absolute authority, was a source of grave danger
both to the king's power and to the good condition of
the people of Wales. So powerful, indeed, did the Lords
Marcher become, that, to an extent hardly appreciated
by English historians, they turned the scale in every
political crisis in England, 2 and made and unmade
dynasties at their caprice. Edward I. was strong enough
to maintain some semblance of authority over them.

1 Owen's Pembrokeshire, pt. iii. p. 168. Cf. ibid. p. 103.

2 Morris, Welsh Wars of Edward I., p. 221. " Such a position
(as Lord of Glamorgan) influenced the Clare's status as a feudal
baion of England. A baron who owed to the King the^service
of more than four hundred and fifty knights, in addition to being
Lord of Glamorgan, simply held the balance of power in any
crisis against the Crown."

WALES AFTER THE CONQUEST : 1282-1542 33

The first statute of Westminster (3 Edw. I. c. 17) enacted
that the king who is sovereign Lord over all shall do
right there (i.e. in the Marches) unto such as will com-
plain ; and after the death of Llewelyn, he showed that
he did not intend them to be mere idle words. He
actively interfered in the dispute which had aiisen
between the Earl of Gloucester as Lord of Glamorgan
and the Earl of Hereford, and decided it as judge, as if
the two earls were only ordinary sub j ects . l Edward III.,
who had in early life experienced the dangers that might
arise to the English throne from the over-grown power
of the Mortimers and the other Lords Marcher, enacted
(28 Edw. III. c. 2) that " all the Lords of the Marches
of Wales shall be perpetually attending and annexed to
the Crown of England, as they and their ancestors have
been at all times past, and not to the Principality of
Wales." He, like his grandfather, was determined to
show that the king had more than a mere semblance of
authority over his subjects in the Marches. In 133 1 he
sent commissioners to inquire into the acts of Richard
de Peshale and Alinia, his wife, the daughter and heiress
of William de Breos, the Lord of Gower. But such
occasional exercises of feudal suzerainty were not suf-
ficient to keep the authority of the Lords Marcher
within bounds. Mr. Justice Stephen 2 aptly compares
their position to that of " the small rajahs to whom much
of the territory of the Punjab and North-West Provinces
still belong." Twenty-one of them sat in Parliament

1 For a detailed and interesting account of Edward's attempt
to curb the powers and privileges of the Lords Marcher by
taking advantage of the feud between the two earls, see c. vi. of
J. E. Morris's Welsh Wars of Edward I.

2 History of Criminal Law.
w.m.w. c

34 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

in virtue of their Welsh lordships in the reigns of the
first three Edwards, although, so destructive had been
their wars, in the time of George Owen, " onlie Aber-
gavenny att this day still continueth his place and name,
and in y e line and blood of y e first conqueror thereof." x
In the meantime they had played their vigorous and
decisive part in the affairs of England. The House of
York derived its chief support from Wales and the
Marches, where, as heirs to the Mortimers, they were
not only the most powerful of the Lords Marcher, but
as the descendants of Gladys Ddu, the daughter of
Llewelyn the Great, they were regarded with singular
affection by Welsh bards and people. 2 Henry Boling-
broke was not only Duke of Lancaster, and in that
capacity a Lord Marcher, but as Earl of Hereford he
owned vast possessions in a distiict which was largety
Welsh, 3 and which was successfully claimed to be undei
the jurisdiction of the Court of the Marches until the
Long Parliament. Warwick the King-maker was head
of the great Marcher house of Neville ; the Duke of
Buckingham was Lord of Brecknock as well as chief
justice and chamberlain of South and North Wales, and

1 " Treatise of Lordshipps Marchers in Wales," Owen's Pemb.
iii. p. 170.

2 Cf . Petition in Lord Herbert's Henry VIII. : " For adhering
to the House of York, which we conceived the better title, we
conserved our devotion still to the Crown, until your Highnesses
father's time, who (bearing his name and blood from us) was the
more cheerfully assisted by our predecessors in his title to the
Crown, which your Highness doth presently enjoy."

3 For the survival of Welsh as a spoken tongue in the Golden
Valley and the Ross district of Herefordshire, see a note by
Egerton Phillimore in Owen's Pembrokeshire, vol. iii. p. 264.
See also Bannister's Herefordshire (Jakeman & Carver, Here-
ford).

WALES AFTER THE CONQUEST : 1282-1542 35

his undoing was largely due to his failure to enlist the
co-operation of Rhys ap Thomas in his adventure ; x
and the later phases of the Wars of the Roses were to
some extent a contest for supremacy in Wales and the
Marches of the Yorkist and Lancastrian Earls of Pem-
broke. In truth, the Wars of the Roses were to an
unsuspected degree a March quarrel. The political
motive for their outbreak has always been regarded as
inadequate. The ambition of Richard of York, and the
fiery spirit of his son Edward, may account for the part
they played ; but why should they have succeeded in
embroiling all England in their rivalry with the House
of Lancaster ? The key to the mystery lies in the
politics of the Welsh Marches. There the Barons had
been accustomed to private wars. After the rebellion
of Owen Glyndwr, the country had never settled down ;
the king's authority was shadowy, unreal, and seldom
enforced ; each Lord Marcher did what seemed good in
his own eyes. Henry of Lancaster and Richard of York
were rivals in the Marches, and the Wars of the Roses
were only March wars on a larger scale. The majority
of the persons who were prominently engaged in them
were Marcher Lords, or they held similar positions on
the Scottish March. The troops employed were very
largely drawn from the Marches of Wales. The scale
was finally turned when Welshmen withdrew from their
traditional loyalty to the House of York and transferred
their allegiance to Lancaster. Had Prince Edward been
spared after Tewkesbury, the course of English history
might have been different. By his death Henry Tudor,
" hil Gadwaladr , paladr per," " of the line of Cadwaladr
of the beautiful shaft," became the representative of the
1 See Gairdner's Richard III., p. 219.

36 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

House of Lancaster. Howel Aerddren, in his " Ode to
Patrick," i.e. Henry Tudor, sang : 1

Thy descent was purer than Baron or Duke's, for it fell from

a Briton.
Call the Welsh to thy side, and they will come to thee ;
Demand England under thee and the despoiling of her men.

The chance of avenging the Conquest of 1282 and of
placing a Welshman of the royal line on the English
throne was sufficient to rally all Welshmen to the Lan-
castrian standard. Hitherto they had been fighting for
feudal lord or baron ; for a Mortimer, for a Neville, or
a Fitz-alan. At Bosworth they fought for a kinsman of
Glyndwr, for a prince descended from the royal stock of
North and South Wales. The force of the popular
enthusiasm carried the Welsh chiefs and the Lords
Marcher on its sweeping tide. Buckingham plotted
against Richard, and fled to his tenants at Brecon when
pursued by the wrath of the king. Rhys ap Thomas of
Dinevor, whose grandfather, Griffith ap Nicholas, had
fallen for the White Rose at Mortimer's Cross, 2 cast
aside the prejudices of his youth and cordially espoused
the cause of Henry Tudor. No one can read the account
of the landing of Henry at Milford Haven, of his progress
through Wales gathering adherents, and of his crowning
triumph at Bosworth Field, without being impressed

i-'Ode to Patrick," Brit. Mus. Add. MSS., 14971 fos. 170 b,
171b. I am indebted for this and other citations from the
fifteenth century poets to an excellent unpublished paper by
Prof. W. Garmon Jones, of Liverpool University, on '* Wales in
the Fifteenth Century." Prof. Garmon Jones has published
some of his researches in the last volume of the Transactions of
the Cymmrodorion Society (1917-1918).

2 I am not convinced by Howell Evans's argument in his
Wales and the Wars of the Roses that Griffith was a partisan of
Lancaster.

WALES AFTER THE CONQUEST : 1282-1542 37

with the fact that without the enthusiasm of his country-
men such an adventure would have been impossible. It
is estimated that the total number of men whom Henry
commanded at Bosworth was only five thousand. 1 He
had had no time to collect troops in England, even had
he been able to attract any adherents. The fortnight
that had elapsed since his landing had mainly been spent
in Wales. Lord Stanley, though married to Henry's
mother, took no part in the battle. The desertion of
Sir William Stanley, the Chamberlain of North Wales,
which turned the fortune of the day, brought the Welsh-
men of North Wales to the support of their countryman.
Sir William's subsequent career shows that he was no
keen partisan of the Tudor. It is no mere conjecture,
therefore, that his desertion of Richard was due to the
temper of his Welsh followers. For years before the
Welsh bards had been exhorting their countrymen to
fight for the Tudor. In their mystical " brudiau," or
rhyming prophecies, they had predicted the victory of
Henry. He was the grandson of Owen Tudor, and was
not Owen of the Red Hand to return from overseas to
deliver his countrymen ?

Tame the Saxon, if thou livest, forgive not one single traitor 2
When the Bull comes from the far land of battle,
Let the far-splitting spear shed the blood of the Saxon on
the stubble. 3

1 Gairdner's Richard III., p. 235. Of these, according to
Polydore Virgil, five hundred had joined at Newport (Salop)
under Sir Gilbert Talbot. What means Henry employed to
gather Welsh troops may be inferred from a very curious letter
which he sent to his kinsman John ap Meredith on his landing
at Milford Haven, and which is given in Wynne's History of the
Gwydir Family, pp. 55-6.

2 " Ode to Patrick," supra.

3 Hist. Comm. Report, Peniarth MSS., p. 408. The contents,

38

THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

Such was the spirit of the exhortations which were
addressed by the bards to their eager countrymen. In
England Henry Tudor might be accepted as the repre-
sentative of the Red Rose. 1 To Welshmen he was one
of their own race. One of the three standards 2 under
which he fought at Bosworth was the Red Dragon of
Wales. Englishmen might regard his marriage with
Elizabeth Plantagenet as the union of the two Roses.
Welshmen regarded it as the union of the descendant
of Lord Rhys of Dinevor with the heiress of Llewelyn
the Great. 3 Henry himself was careful to foster this

metre, and authorship show that it cannot relate to Llewelyn,
but to the Tudors.

1 Modern historians have doubted if the Lancastrians had
adopted the Red Rose as their badge, but it is asserted that the
Red Rose was the " Tudor Rose." See Evans's Wales and the
Wars of the Roses, pp. 7-8.

2 The first banner was emblazoned with the figure of St. George-
the second with the Red Dragon of Cadwaladr, " a red fiery
dragon beaten upon white and green sarcanet " (Hall, 423), and
the third with the dun cow of the Tudors

3 The following table shows the Tudor descent from Lord Rhys

Lord Rhys

Griffith

I
Owen

Meredith
Owen

Llewelyn

Thomas

Owen Elen

d.s.p. = Griffith Vychan

Owen Glyndwr

Elinor
= (1) Wm. Griffith de La Pole
= (2) Tudor ap Gronw

I
Meredith

I
Tudor

t
Owen Tudor.

WALES AFTER THE CONQUEST : 1282-1542 39

idea. He refused to base his title to the English throne
only or mainly on his Lancastrian descent, or his York-
shire marriage, or his parliamentary title. He claimed
the crown of England by right of conquest. Alone of
English sovereigns he was crowned on the field of battle.
His first act on entering London was an assertion of his
title by conquest. " He went first into St. Paul's
Church, where, not meaning that the people should
forget too soon that he came in by battle," said Bacon, 1
" he made offertory of his standards, and had orizons
and Te Deum sung." Henry's insistence on his title by
conquest has puzzled English historians from Bacon
downwards, who have chosen to regard his accession as
the natural and inevitable outcome of the Wars of the
Roses. Henry himself never forgot his Welsh blood, or
the services which his countrymen rendered to him at
the crisis of his fortunes. After ascending the throne
he sent a commission to Wales to inquire into and
publish his Welsh descent. This is said to have been
due to his sensitiveness to the charge that he was of a
mean and ignoble lineage. It is more probable that he
wished to proclaim to the world that he was descended
from the Welsh princely line, and to conciliate the Welsh
by showing that a descendant of Cadwaladr sat on the
English throne. Mr. Pollard 2 has revived an old legend
that the Tudors " were a Welsh family of modest means
and doubtful antecedents. They claimed, it is true,
descent from Cadwaladr, and their pedigree was as long
and quite as veracious as most Welsh genealogies." 3
It is, perhaps, little to the purpose to trace in detail the

1 Bacon's Henry VII., Spedding's edition, vol. vi. p. 32.
J Pollard's Henry VIII., p. 5.
3 Ibid.

4 o THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

Tudor line. Suffice it to say that the Tudors were
descended, though not in the male line, from the old
Welsh princes. Mr. Pollard speaks of the worthlessness
of Welsh genealogies. It is true that in Wales, as in
England, pedigrees were forged, especially in the six-
teenth century. But few Welsh scholars, who have
consulted the genealogical poems of the fifteenth century
bards, will be found to endorse Mr. Pollard's opinion.
What is of interest is that Henry should have been
anxious to proclaim his Welsh descent. He called his
eldest son Arthur after the Cymric national hero. A
foreign writer, writing in 1500, said of the Welsh that
" they may now be said to have recovered their former
independence, for the most wise and fortunate Henry
VII. is a Welshman." x Henry VII. did not feel secure
on his throne for many years. Bacon remarks that he
never slaked in his hostility to the House of York.
When the impostors, Lambert Simnel and Perkin War-
beck, invaded the realm, it was to Wales that he mainly
turned for support. England had become to a large
extent a settled country. Even the destructive Wars
of the Roses had hardly affected the common people.
So little interest was there felt in the quarrel that in
the decisive and final battle of the war only some ten
thousand combatants were engaged. But Wales was in
different case. It was given up to the pursuit of arms
as a profession. The restrictive acts of Henry IV.,
passed during and after the rebellion of Glyndwr, had
gradually ceased to be operative. They were in any
case only meant to apply to the old possessions of the
Prince of Snowdon. The domains of the Lords Marcher

1 An Italian Relation 0) the Island of England, published by
the Camden Society.

WALES AFTER THE CONQUEST : 1282-1542 41

were untouched by them. It is difficult to decide
whether the " ancient counties " or the districts under
the Lords Marcher were the most disturbed and dis-
tracted in the fifteenth century. In the previous century
Dafydd ap Gwilym, and even Iolo Goch, who became
the bard of Glyndwr, sang of a peaceful and industrious
Wales. The rebellion of Glyndwr, the French Wars,
and the Civil Wars that followed, had thrown the whole
country into confusion and anarchy. The History of
the Gwydir Family describes what took place in Car-
narvon, which was " shire-ground." In the time of
Henry VIII. Bishop Rowland Lee complained that
Cardigan and Merioneth, though shire-ground, were not
less disturbed than the Marches. In the anarchy that
prevailed each Lord Marcher had become a semi-inde-
pendent kinglet, who maintained a large retinue of
armed followers. A malefactor had only to fly over the
border of his lordship to be welcomed with open arms
by a neighbouring Lord Marcher. ' The government
and royall jurisdiction of y e said Lords Marchers (which
was in most places executed most injuriouslie by bad
partiall and covetous ministers) was found to be most
noysome and rather a cause to urge ye subjects to
rebell than to preserve and keep in quietness y c country
people." l In England, Henry VII. dealt vigorously
with great nobles who kept too many retainers. In
Wales he did nothing. He allowed Rhys ap Thomas
to become the most powerful man that South Wales
had produced since the Lord Rhys. 2 Sir Rhys's whole

1 George Owen, Description of Wales, p. 20.

2 Y Brenhin bia'r ynys
Ond sy o ran i Sir Rhys.

Rhys Nanmor.

42 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

force was always at the king's command, whether it
was to put down a pretender or to aid his sovereign
overseas. Henry VII. never forgot that Wales was
the most martial portion of his realm ; he tried to
attach it to himself by appeals to its racial pride ; and
" gave in chardge to his soone Prynce Henry that he
showld have a spetiall care for the benefitt of his owne
Nation and Countrymen the Welshmen." x

THE COURT OF THE COUNCIL OF THE MARCHES

1471-1542

The first attempt to bring Wales into better order was
made in the reign of Edward IV. True to the Yorkist
policy of " governance," Edward determined to estab-
lish a Court in the Marches of Wales which would put
down lawlessness with a strong hand, and, by bringing
near to the people something in the nature of a cen-
tralised government, help to remove some of the evils
under which the land was groaning. That the people
of Wales, then as now, were amenable to good govern-
ment is apparent from the complaints of the bards, who,
martial though they were, showed that they were yearn-
ing for the dawn of better days. " Ni fyn un dyn ofni
Duw," ' there is none that will fear God," was the bitter
complaint of Dafydd Llwyd ap Llewelyn. The story of
the foundation of the Court of the Council of the Marches
was sketched by Dr. Powel in his History of Cambria in
1584. Dr. Powel was in touch with Sir Henry Sidney
and the other officials of the Court, and his account
must have been derived from intimate contact with
those who had made a study of its history. At all

1 George Owen's "Dialogue" in Owen's Pembrokeshire, pt. iii.
P- 39-

WALES AFTER THE CONQUEST : 1282-1542 43

events it is certain that recent investigations have not
materially corrected any statements made by the old
historian, or added appreciably to our information. 1
" King Edward the Fourth," said Powel, " using much
the faithfull service of the Welshmen meant the refor-
mation of the estate of Wales, and the establishment of
a court within that Principalitie, and therefore he sent
the Bishop of Worcester, and the Earle of Rivers, with
the Prince of Wales, to the countrie, to the end he might
understand how to proceed in his proposed reformation.
But the trowbles and disquietnesse of his owne subjects,
and the shortness of his time sufficed him to doo little
or nothing in that behalfe." 2

It is now ascertained that the Prince's Court in the
Marches was first constituted about the year 1471. 3
But Edward IV. does not appear to have done much
more than establish the Court at Ludlow. Of real

1 The first attempt in recent times to investigate the story of
" The Court of the President and Council of Wales and the
Marches " was made by the late Judge David Lewis, whose
valuable paper appeared in vol. x i. of the Cymmrodor magazine.
This was supplemented by the extremely interesting " Further
Notes " of Mr. Lleufer Thomas in the subsequent volume.
Dr. Henry Owen's " English Law in Wales and the Marches,"
which has already been cited (vol. xiv. of the Cymmrodor), also
dealt with the same subject. Still later, Miss Skeel has dealt
exhaustively with the whole history of the Court in her learned
and careful work entitled The Council in the Marches of Wales.
Flenley's " Register " of the Council, published in the Record
Series of the Cymmrodorion Series, provides valuable material,
though most of it was foreign to the scope of this book.

2 Powel's History of Cambria, p. 389. Miss Skeel conjectures
(ch. i) that the Council arose out of the Prince of Wales's Council,
which may have been in existence from 1284, but though this is
not improbable, there is no evidence to bear it out.

3 Miss Skeel (p. 20) says : " It was clearly a development of the
Council attached to the Prince of Wales," which had existed
since the installation of Edward of Carnarvon.

44 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

power the Court seems to have had little. The youth
of the prince, the novelty of the undertaking, and the
indifference of the king, combined to make it of little
importance in the " reformation of the estate of Wales."
Henry VII., like his predecessor, " using much the
faithfull service of the Welshmen," put into effect the
design of the Yorkist king. In 1493 he sent Prince
Arthur to hold his Court at Ludlow, but it was only in
1501 that he began to develop his policy. In that year
he sent a remarkable man, William Smyth, Bishop of
Lincoln, to Ludlow as the first real Lord President of
the Court of the Council of the Marches. " This Bus-
hope," said Gerard in his Discourse already cited, " is
the first Lord President of Walles found in the Recordes,
who was sent by Henry VII. in the seventeenth year of
his rayne to be Lord President of Prince Arthur's Coun-
saille in the Principalite of Walles and Marches of the
same. And so confine wed Lord President untill the
4th yare of Henry VIII. He was the founder of Brase-
nose College, Oxford." * The only record of the powers
of the Council is to be found in Gerard's Discourse. 2
' They had instructions geven them which was in effect
to execute Justice upon all felons and prayers of Cattell
in thenglishe adjoyning Counties upon all felonies there
or in any parte of Wales comitted, to suppresse and
ponishe by ffyne and ymprisonment Rowtes, Riottes,
vnlawfull assemblies, assaultes, affraies, extorc'ons, and
exac'cons and to heare the complaintes as well of all

His portrait is in the Hall of Brasenose, where he is described
as " primus Wallie praeses." Miss Skeel (pp. 22-24) states that
Bishop Alcock of Ely, the founder of Jesus College, Cambridge,
is really entitled to this honour. The date of his appointment
is variously given as 1476 and 1478. He died at Wisbech in 1500.

' State Papers, Dom., Eliz., vol. cvii. No. 21.

WALES AFTER THE CONQUEST : 1282 -1542 45

poor welshe personnes oppressed or wronged in any
cause as to those enhabitinge in thenglish Counties
adjoyninge. They had aucthoritie by Comission of Oyer
and terminer and speciall gaole deliverie throughowte
Wales and in those Englishe counties adjoyninge."

Dr. Powel adds that among " other wise and expert
counsellors " the king appointed " Sir Richard Poole,
his kinsman, which was his cheefe chamberlaine." Sir
Richard Pole, the father of Cardinal Pole, was the lineal
descendant of the Princes of Powys, 1 and would there-
fore have peculiar authority over the Welsh of Mid-
Wales. Bishop Smith, true to Henry's policy of con-
ciliating the Welsh, did not resort to coercive measures.
He rather endeavoured to win the affection of his master's
turbulent kinsmen by dispensing hospitality on a lavish
scale at the Prince's Court, and by making the Welsh
chiefs and the Lords Marcher feel that Arthur was not
the representative of an alien authority, but was in

1 As late as 1534 Martin de Cornoca reported that the whole of
Wales was devoted to the house of Pole. (State Papers, vol. vii.
1040.) The genealogy of the Poles is thus given in the Book
of Golden Grove, L 1647, now in the Record Office :
Owen Cyfeiliog

I

Owen

I
Sir Gilbert Poole, g.-g. -grandfather of

I
David Vaux = Margaret, dau. Griffith

Meredydd Llewelyn

Geoffrey Poole

I
Sir Richard Poole, K.G. = Margaret, Countess

of Salisbury

Lord Montague. Cardinal Pole, etc

46 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

reality the Prince of Wales. That his administration
was at least partially successful is evident from the
increasing loyalty of Wales. " And soe the Government
of Wales was continued under the Lords Marcher until
the time of Henry VII.," wrote George Owen, " in whose
time the Welshmen willinglie submitted themselves in
hart to his highness being paternallie of their auncient
princes of the British line, in such sort that they who
in former times were termede soe disobedient to the
crowne of England (and against whom the kings of
England promulged such unnaturall and extreame lawes,
as never did any prince did the like against his subjects)
grewe so quiett that King Henry VIII. in his tyme did
well perceave that the people and countrey of Wales
might be governed by lawes as the subjects of England,
and not by thraldome and crueltye used by the Lords
Marcher."

George Owen, however, was speaking after the event.
There were still many difficulties to be overcome, still
many ghosts to be laid, before Wales was to be granted
the boon of equal treatment with England. With the
death of Prince Arthur, in 1502, King Henry seems to
have lost his interest in the Court of the Marches.
Young Henry was created Prince of Wales in 1503, but
he never visited Wales or held his Court in the Marches.
Bishop Smith, however, remained at his post till Henry
VII. 's death in 1509. He continued, nominally, as
president till his own death in 151 4, but the latter years
of his life were almost entirely spent in his diocese of
Lincoln.

There was no break of continuity in the tenure of the
presidency. Bishop Smith was succeeded by Bishop
Blyth of Lichfield, and Bishop Vescie or Voysey of

WALES AFTER THE CONQUEST : 1282-1542 47

Exeter. Henry VIII., in spite of his father's " charge,"
up to 1525 had paid little attention to the affairs of
Wales. He had never visited the country, the Statute
Book was bare even of mention of the affairs of the
Principality, the Court of Ludlow became a mere shadow
and a name. The king during the first years of his
reign seems to have been content with playing the royal
part in the national pageant. As he was willing to
allow his foreign and domestic policy to be directed by
Wolsey, so he was content to allow " Father Rhys," as
he familiarly called Sir Rhys ap Thomas, practically to
rule South Wales. Sir Rhys not only held the enormous
Dinevor estates, but he was Chief Justice and Chamber-
lain of South Wales. The rest of Wales and the Marches
were administered in haphazard fashion as in the days
of his father. As long as Sir Rhys lived, the power of
the Court of Ludlow over South Wales was of the most
shadowy character. But in 1525 Sir Rhys ap Thomas
died, and with him died the old order. There is nothing
so remarkable in the history of Henry VIII. as the
growth of his mind, of his power, and of his statesman-
like vigour, almost every year after the first dozen
joyous, careless years of his reign. It was, no doubt,
the death of Sir Rhys that first directed his attention
to Wales. He probably knew but little of the internal
condition of the country. There are no records in
the earlier State Papers of his reign dealing with the
Principality. But by 1525 the masterful and jealous
character of the king had begun to assert itself. Several
years after, Sir Thomas More addressed a prophetic
warning to Cromwell about the character of the master
from whose service More was then retiring. " Master
Cromwell," he said, " you are now entered into the

48 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

service of a most noble, wise, and liberal prince ; if you
will follow my poor advice, you shall in your counsel-
giving to his Grace ever tell him what he ought to do,
but never what he is able to do. For if a lion knew
his own strength, hard were it for any man to rule
him." x Ever since the death of Buckingham — more
rapidly since the fall of Wolsey — Henry was learning
what he could do. He realised that a despot must ever
cut the heads of the tallest poppies. Wolsey he trusted
fully almost to the time of his death ; More at one time
he loved. All that we know of his bearing towards Sir
Rhys ap Thomas goes to show that he looked upon him
as a faithful and necessary minister for the government
of Wales. But, with Sir Rhys's death, Henry's strong,
vigorous mind began to address itself to the question of
Wales. His first act was characteristic. He refused to
continue Sir Rhys's grandson — a young man who was
married to a daughter of the second Duke of Norfolk —
in his offices, but appointed Lord Ferrers of Chartley,
afterwards the first Viscount Hereford, as his successor.
He paid a visit in person to Ludlow, accompanied by
his daughter Mary, who was unofficially styled the
Princess of Wales. At Ludlow Mary remained till 1528,
when she was recalled in disgrace owing to the king's
divorce proceedings against her ill-fated mother,
Catherine of Arragon. It may be that the king's only
intention in and after 1525 was to curb the overweening
power of the Dinevor family. But there is one refer-
ence in the State Papers which suggests that already,
after the installation of the Princess Mary at Ludlow,
the king was forming other and greater designs. In a
letter dated 9th January, 1526, Lord Ferrers wrote to
1 Roper, Life of Sir T. More (ed. 1729), p. 69.

WALES AFTER THE CONQUEST : 1282-1542 49

the Lord President of the Council at Ludlow, that —
' When his Lordship was first admitted Lord President
of the Princess's Council, my Lord Legate (Wolsey)
instructed the writer and others of that Council that
no subpoenaes should be directed into Wales or the
Marches, but every cause be first tried before the stewards
and officers there, the appeal to lie afterwards to his
Lordship and other Commissioners. Subpoenaes are
now served in Carmarthen and Cardigan, in spite of
the proclamations, the like of which was never seen
before."

The writer concludes : " And now both shires saith
plainly that they will not pay one groat at this present
Candlemas next coming, nor never after, if any man do
appear otherwise than they have been accumed, but
they had liever ryn into the woods."

It would be interesting to know more of the circum-
stances attending this complaint. No reference is to
be found to it later, and it would therefore seem that a
stop was put to the attempt of the Ludlow Court to
exercise original jurisdiction in the old counties and the
Marches of Wales. But the fact that the attempt was
made, soon after the king's visit to Ludlow, is, perhaps,
indicative of the ulterior object which the king had even
then vaguely formed, but which was only destined to
bring forth fruit after many days. Lord Ferrers was
not only Chamberlain of South Wales, he was also a
great Lord Marcher, and his letter breathes a spirit of
jealousy of the Ludlow Court's interference in the
Marches as well as in the counties of Carmarthen and
Cardigan. If Henry had formed any such design, he
was constrained by the rapid course of great events in
England to forgo it for the time. After the little flash

W.M.W. D

50 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

of energy displayed in 1526, the Court of the Marches
sank once more into lethargy. In 1528, when the un-
certain position of the Princess Mary had no doubt
affected the authority of her Council, a petition was
sent to Ludlow by the bailiff and burgesses of Brecon
complaining that justice was not kept, that the king's
tenants were impoverished, and his revenues decayed.
The reply of the Council, while it indicates that the
state of things was better than it had been, did not
attempt to deny the facts mentioned in the petition.
The circumstances, however, are too obscure to enable
any conclusion to be drawn as to the powers which were
vested in the Council over March land such as Brecknock,
though the fact that the complaint was made to the
Council indicates that it exercised some power in the
Marches even in 1528.

The insurrection of Rhys ap Griffith, the grandson of
Sir Rhys ap Thomas, at Carmarthen in 1529 served to
bring home to the king the disorderly condition of the
Principality. 1 It showed, too, that the Council of
Ludlow was too weak to deal with such cases of tur-
bulence. Lord Ferrers, as a Lord Marcher, may have
disliked to enhance the reputation of the Council. It
is certain at least that, for whatever reason, the young
chief was sent to answer for his misdemeanours before
the Star Chamber in London. 2 That the Council at
Ludlow continued to be impotent in the face of the
growing anarchy in Wales is shown by a letter of one
Thomas Phillips to Cromwell, in 1531. It is interesting

1 For an account of Rhys ap Griffith's " affray," see the writer's
article in Y Cymmrodor, vol. xvi.

8 It was, however, the general practice to bring the more
important offenders before the Star Chamber. V. ch. iii. infra.

WALES AFTER THE CONQUEST: 1282-1542 51

because, with the exception of the letters concerning
Rhys ap Griffith's insurrection, it is the first intimation
the English Government had of the real state of things
in Wales. In it he pleads that such a Council be estab-
lished in the Marches, that the best officer in Wales
should quake if found in default. 1 A still more im-
portant letter, because it pointed out one of the defects
of the existing system, was sent to Cromwell, in 1533,
by Sir Edward Croft, an official of the Council, and
Vice-Chamberlain of South Wales. Wales, he said, was

' far out of order," and many murders in Oswestry and
Powys had gone unpunished, because the President,
being a cleric, had no power to inflict the penalty of
death. He wished " some man to be sent down to us
to use the sword of justice where he shall see cause,
throughout the Principality. Otherwise the Welsh will
wax so wild, it will not be easy to bring them to order
again." 2 In the same year Thomas Croft wrote that

' more than a hundred have been slain in the Marches
of Wales since the Bishop of Exeter was President there,
and not one of them punished." 3

The prayers of Phillips and of the Crofts were speedily
answered. In 1534 a man was sent to succeed the
Bishop of Exeter as Lord President of the Council,
who left the stamp of his personality upon it and its
work, and who made the terror of his name felt through
all the Marches of Wales. Rowland Lee, Bishop of
Lichfield, only held the office of President for nine years,
no long period in the life of a nation, but so dominant
was his character and so unresting his energy that he

1 State Papers, Henry VIII., vol. v. 991.

2 State Papers, Domestic, Henry VIII., vol. vi. 210.

3 Ibid. 946.

52 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

will ever be regarded as the most famous in the list of
Presidents, and as the administrator who left an abiding
impress on the history of Wales. Gerard, in his second
Discourse, describes him as " stowte of nature, readie
witted, roughe in speeche, not affable to any of the
walshrie, 1 an extreme severe ponisher of offenders, de-
sirous to gayne (as he did in deede) credit with the king
and commendac'on for his service." 2 Froude states
that he was " the last survivor of the old martial pre-
lates, fitter for harness than for bishop's robes, for a
court of justice than a court of theology, more at home
at the head of his troopers chasing cattle-stealers in the
gorges of Llangollen than hunting heretics to the stake,
or chasing formulas in the arduous defiles of contro-
versy." 3 He had come to the fore as Henry's agent
in the divorce controversy and in the suppression of the
smaller monasteries. It was believed that it was he
who performed the marriage ceremony between the king
and Anne Boleyn. Though he took the king's side
against the Pope, he was far removed from Protes-
tantism. One of Cromwell's correspondents calls him

1 A characteristic story of Lee's treatment of the " Welshery "
is given in Pennant's Tour in Wales, p. 17. " Before I quit the
House (of Tremostyn) I must take notice that Thomas ap Richard
ap Howel ap Jevan Vychan, lord of Mostyn. and his brother
Piers, founder of the family of Talacre, were the first to abridge
their name and that on the following occasion. Rowland Lee,
President of the Marches of Wales, sat at one of the Courts in
a Welsh cause, and wearied with the quantity of Ap's in the
jury, directed that the panel should assume their last name or
the name of their residence, and that Thomas ap Richard,
etc.. should for the future be reduced to the poor disyllable
Mostyn, no doubt to the great mortification of many an ancient
line."

2 State Papers, Dom., Eliz., vol. cvii. No. 10.

3 History oj England, vol. iii. 229.

WALES AFTER THE CONQUEST : 1282-1542 53

" an earthly beast, a mole, and an enemy to all godly
learning into the office of his damnation — a papist, an
idolater, and a fleshly priest." The stout bishop laid
no claim to superior sanctity, or even to any rigid,
ceremonious observance of the duties of his ecclesiastical
position. " I was never hitherto in the pulpit," he
wrote to Cromwell as late as 1534. But if he neglected
his diocese and his priestly functions, he spent the
revenues of his see in carrying out the duties of his
secular office. He was not deterred by the old canonical
rule that a cleric should not shed blood. His extant
letters to Cromwell, giving authentic information to the
Government, betray his qualities and their defects. His
breezy personality, after the course of nearly four cen-
turies, lives in and through them. He is thoroughly
human, especially in his love for open-air sport. We
find him sending to his patron a present of partridges,
doubtless the prize of his own skill. In one letter he
records that he has " just killed a great buck." In
another he begs Cromwell to send to him " a warrant
for a stag in the forest of Wyer."

Rowland Lee soon set himself to show the robbers and
thieves of the borders that he was not afraid to inflict
the death penalty. In July, 1534, we find him writing :

' The Walshe above Schroysbury be very besy, and
as I am informed doo bryne divers howses and doo
grett disspeles whiche cannot be withowte the consente
of sum hedes, whose hedes if I may knewe justly the
trenges I shall make ake and folew your preceptes, not
thayreof to fayle, god beyng my good lorde." x

By the following year he was able to report that the
' Welshmen of Shrewsbury " had been brought " into
1 State Papers, Henry VIII., vol. vii. No. 940.

54 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

a reasonable staye touching such roberyes and other
malefacts as were there used," and that he had " hanged
four of the best blood in the county of Shropshire." x
In December, 1535, his activities ranged from Presteign
and Hereford to Chepstow and Monmouth. In the
following month he describes with great gusto the
hanging of thieves at Ludlow on market day. " If he
(i.e. the thief) be taken, he playeth his pageant." He
feels that his stern policy of repression has made him
a marked man, but he does not shrink from the dangers
attendant upon his position. " Although the thieves
have hangid me by imaginacion, yet I truste to be even
with them shorteley in very dede." In June, 1536, he
was in Montgomeryshire, where was gathered together
" a certain cluster or company of thieves and mur-
derers " whom he was resolved to put down. No doubt
the rigour of his administration and the summariness
of his methods have been exaggerated, both by contem-
poraries and by posterity. But the times were rude,
and justice was at best but roughly administered. We
may discount, with Froude, the statement that seventy-
two thousand malefactors suffered the extreme penalty
of the law in the reign of Henry VIII., but even so
careful a writer as Stubbs speaks of Henry's " holo-
causts " of victims. 2 Similarly we may discredit the
loose statement of Ellis Griffith, a contemporary soldier,
who wrote an account of his own times, that under the
bishop's rule, five thousand men were hanged in the
Marches of Wales within the space of six years. 3 When

1 Nov. 6th, 1535 ; State Papers, vol. vii. p. 529, No. 1393.

2 Stubbs's Lectures on Med. and Mod. History, p. 304.

3 Dr. Gwenogvyrn Evans, Introduction (p. x) to the Mostyn
MSS. published by the Historical MSS. Commission.

WALES AFTER THE CONQUEST : 1282-1542 55

one remembers that the population of Wales was only
about one-sixteenth of that of England, 1 and that these
victims were said to have fallen in less than a sixth of
Henry's reign, and in only a part of what is now known
as the Principality of Wales, the number of Welsh male-
factors who fell victims to the good bishop's sense of
justice becomes incredible. None the less, it is perfectly
evident that thieves and murderers were hanged in
batches, without respect of persons, and without very
much regard for the forms of law. Lee was enjoined
by Cromwell that " indifferent justice must be ministered
to poor and rich according to their demerits." This
injunction he faithfully obeyed, and for the first time
since the death of Llewelyn the law began to be re-
spected in Wales and the Marches. Gerard, in his
Discourse, written thirty-two years after the bishop's
death, gives unstinted praise to his administration.
" They spent their holle tyme in travellinge yeerlie
eythr throughe Wales or a great parte of the same in
causes towchinge Civill government, and by that travell
knewe the people and founde theire disposicon, favored
and preferred to auctoritie and office in theire countreys
suche howe meane of lyvinge soever they were, as they
founde diligente and willinge to serve in discoveringe
and tryinge owte of offences and offendors. Theye like-
wise deforced and discountenanced others, of howe
greate callinge and possessions soever they were, beinge
of contrarie disposicon. This stoute bushoppes dealinge
and the terror that the vertue of learninge workethe in
the subjecte when he perceiveth that he is governed

1 " The whole population of England did not then (15 15) in all
probability much exceed 2,000,000 " (Fisher, Political History of
England, vol. v. p. 215). The population of Wales, on this
estimate, would be about 125,000.

56 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

under a lerned magistrate, within iij or iiij yeres generallie
so terrified theyme, as the verie feare of punishment
rather than the desire or love that the people hadd
to chaunge their walshrie wroughte first in theym
the obedience theye nowe bee grown into. Then
was this Counsell and theire proceedinges as moche
feared, reverenced and hadd in estimacion of the
walshrie as at this daye the Starre Chamber of the
English." »

Without subscribing to every word of this eulogy of
the bishop and his coadjutors — putting a good deal of
it down to the natural tendency of the official to magnify
his office or the institution to which he belongs, and the
attraction which anything in the shape of " strong and
resolute government " has for a certain type of mind —
it bears witness to the indelible mark left by Rowland
Lee on the administration of Wales. Firm government,
rigorous administration of justice, and absolute fearless-
ness in enforcing law and order were indispensable to
Wales of that period ; and those boons she obtained
from Rowland Lee.

The condition of Wales, or of those parts of Wales,
visited by him, as described by the Lord President in
his letters to Cromwell, was deplorable. In a letter,
written in the first year of his presidency, he gives a
graphic illustration of the state of the country. In the
lordship of Magor alone there were at the time living
unpunished, under the protection of Sir Walter Herbert,
five malefactors who had committed wilful murder,
eighteen who had committed murder, and twenty thieves
and outlaws who had committed every variety of crime. 2

1 State Papers, Don:., Eliz., vol. cvii. No. io.

2 Wright's History of Ludlow, 383.

WALES AFTER THE CONQUEST : 1282-1542 57

The evils of " Arthel " and " Commortha " were rife.
Both customs had an honest and legitimate origin.
They had become a peril to the state. To " arthel "
or " arddel " a man was to vouch or become surety
for him or for his good behaviour. It was a recognised
and indeed highly necessary procedure under the laws
of Howel Dda. 1 It grew to be a gross abuse. The
Lords Marcher " avouched " murderers and outlaws,
and so surrounded themselves with a bodyguard of
lawless ruffians. So deeply rooted and widespread was
this evil that even the new Lord President found it
impossible to eradicate it without having recourse to
legislation. Section 13 of 26 Henry VIIL, c. 6, which
was passed in 1534, soon after Rowland Lee came to
the Marches, was doubtless enacted owing to the repre-
sentations of the bishop.

" And where heretofore upon divers Murthers, Rob-
beries and Felonies perpetrated and done, as well within
the Lordships Marchers of Wales as in other places in
Wales without the same Lordships, the offenders divers
Times flee and escape from the same Lordship or other
Place where such offence was committed, and have
repaired and resorted into another Lordship Marcher,
and there by the aid Comfort and Favour of the said
Lord of the same Lordship, or his Officer or Officers,
have been abiding and resiant, into which Lordships
the same Lords Marcher have and do pretend a Custom
and Privilege that none of the King's Ministers . . .
may enter to pursue apprehend and attach any such
offender," it is enacted that the officers of the Council
of the Marches shall have authority to follow the offender

1 Wade Evans, Welsh Mediaeval Law, at pp. 88, 234, and 325 ;
Owen's Ancient Laws 0/ Wales, pp. 935-6.

58 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

and bring him back to the jurisdiction of the lord where
the offence was committed. 1

The practice of Commortha (cymhorth = help) had its

origin in the practice of co-aration — a custom which has

to some extent survived even to our own times in rural

Wales. " Cymmorthas are assemblies of people to assist

a neighbour in any work." 2 It was easy for the lawless

Lords Marcher to take advantage of the old custom to

further their own interests, or to make it a cloak to

conceal an illegal assembly, or, sometimes, to extort an

illegal exaction. So great had the evil become that by

section 6 of the statute already referred to it was enacted

" that no person or persons from henceforth, without

licence of the said Commnrs. in writing, shall within

Wales or the Marches of the same, or in any Shires

adjoining to the same, require, procure, gather, or levy

any Commorth, Bydale, Tenant's Ale, or other Collection

or Exaction of Goods, Chattels, Money, or any other

Thing, under colour of marrying, or suffering of their

Children saying or singing their first Masses or Gospels

of any Priests or Clerks, or for Redemption of any

Murther, or any other Felony, or for any other Manner

or Cause, by what Name or Names soever they shall be

called . . . and that no Person or Persons shall hereafter

at any Time cast any Thing into any Court within Wales,

1 Bowen's Statutes of Wales, p. 62. Cf. Judge D. Lewis to
Walsingham in 1575 : " The gt. disorders in Wales, specially in
South Wales, have growen muche of late daies by retayners of
gentlemen, whom they muste, after the manner of the countrey,
bere out in all actions be they never so badd. They have also
foster-brothers, loyteringe and idle kinsmen and other hangers-
on. . . ."

2 Pennant's Tour in Wales, iii. 353. There was one exception
in the statue to the prohibition of commortha, viz. in the case
of the loss of property by fire.

WALES AFTER THE CONQUEST : 1282-1542 59

or in the Lordships Marchers of the same, by the Mean
or Name of an Arthel, by Reason whereof the Court may
be letted, disturbed, or discontinued for that Time, upon
Pain of one whole year's imprisonment."

In spite of this statutory prohibition, so inveterate
was the custom, 1 that one George Matthew of Glamorgan
obtained, in 1536, greatly to the Lord President's annoy-
ance, the king's licence to hold Commortha. " He is so
befriended," commented Lee in a letter to Cromwell,
' that it will run through all Wales to his advantage to
the amount of one hundred marks."

The abduction of heiresses, which is always a sign of
social anarchy, was not uncommon, and was tolerated
by public opinion. 2 Bishop Lee gives an account of the

1 Though it was forbidden to gather a Commorth " under
colour of marrying," it is curious to find that the practice (under
the name of " taith " or " neithior ") survived down to our own
days. Judge D. Lewis in his letter to Walsingham (1575) states,
that the idle kinsmen of gentlemen " when they have offended
will be shifted to some friendes of theires in another quarter, so
as they will not be fownde to be ponished when time shall require,
and in the meanwhile the gentlemen will practize an agreement
with the partyes grieved, and then because the loyterers have
nothing of theire owne the gentlemen must help them to a
Comortha to satisfye the parties dampnifyed " ; cf. S.P.D.
Elizabeth, vol. cvii. No. 5, " Consideration of thinges to be
reformed with the Counsell of the Marches of Wales." 4. " The
kymorthas which was wont to be a benevolence is now grown to be
partlie compulsorie by such as have riotously wasted their
living, or have been greatlie chargde to win their saftie for
some heynous murther or felonie to the importunate charge of
the best sort of men. And therefore worthie to be slaide, for
the honest and simple are never relieved therebie."

2 " This is a vice common to Wales, and for its reformation we
caused the trial to be made, but all the honest persons we had
appointed absented themselves" (Lee to Cromwell, 28th February,
1538). A generation ago it was still customary in some parts of
Wales for the bride and bridegroom to ride away from Church,
followed on horseback by their relations and friends — a relic of
the time when brides were really abducted by the bridegrooms.

60 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

abduction of a widow named Joan ap Hoell from the
church at Llanwarne by one Roger Morgan. In the
following month the abductor was tried before a jury
at Gloucester, and, to the bishop's intense chagrin, was
acquitted. 1 " When it came to the trial of the Morgans,"
wrote Lee to Cromwell, " the rest of the gentlemen could
not be found in the town by the sheriff, so were fain to
take such as remained, who against the evidence
acquitted the Morgans. ... Mr. Justice Porte will con-
fess the premises to be true, as I willed him and his
associate at the assizes, Mr. Montague, to cess good
fines upon the gentlemen that departed of their dis-
obedience." 2 The unwillingness or fear of juries to
do their duty honestly in such trials was notorious.
' Though at the late Assizes (at Chester) many bills,
well supported, were put into the ' greate enqueste '
(grand jury), yet contrary to their duty they have found
murders to be manslaughters and riots to be misbe-
haviours." 3 The bishop promptly committed the grand
jury to prison " for their lightness." He added, to
defend himself against a possible charge of harshness,
that if the country was to be kept in order, punishment
must be inflicted, for by the common law things so far
out of order could never be redressed — a summary of
the absolutist doctrine of Tudor and Stuart statesmen.
Another story, which is given in some detail in the
State Papers, presents a vivid illustration of the con-
dition of Wales at the time. It relates to a scapegrace
scion of a great Norman-Welsh family, Robert Stradling
of Glamorganshire. His confession, taken at Bewdley

1 State Papers, Henry VIII., vol. xiii. pt. i. p. 128, No. 37.

2 Lee to Cromwell, ibid. vol. xiii. pt. i. 371

3 State Papers, vol. xiii. pt. i. 141 1.

WALES AFTER THE CONQUEST : 1282-1542 61

on 28th September, 1535, is thus summarised : " About
two years ago took part with his father-in-law, Watkyn
Lougher, who disputed certain lands with Charles Tur-
bill. Confesses to having kept one Lewes of North
Wales and one Griffith of Caermarthenshire, who robbed
and murdered Piers Dere, for five or six weeks in his
house, and they gave him one royal of Dere's. Killed
Gitto Jenkyn, who quarrelled with him while coursing
at the White Crosse, on the said lands in variance.
Was outlawed, and to escape the search, boarded with
six persons a balinger of Pastowe in the haven near the
Abbey of Neath, and made the mariners put to sea for
three weeks. Did no harm to anyone. Landed at
Milford Haven, and went to Waterford in the latter end
of April. Hearing that proclamations were made in
Wales against him returned." x

Lee was no believer in any policy but that of repres-
sion. The common law was insufficient, and exceptional
measures had to be taken. " If one thief shall try
another, all we have begun is foredone." 2 He tells
with glee how he hanged a dead thief on a gallows for
a warning, and how three hundred people followed to
see the carriage of the thief in a sack, " the manner
whereof had not been before." " All thieves in Wales
quake for fear, and there is but one thief, of name Hugh
Duraunt, whom we trust to have shortly. Wales is
brought to that state that one thief taketh another, and
one cow keepeth another, as Lewis my servant shall
inform you." 3 Holding such views of the inadequacy

1 Slate Papers, Henry VIII., vol. ix. 465. In the end Lee
recommended him for the king's pardon, because he was " a
proper man and a good archer and willing to pay a reasonable
fine " (ibid. ix. 126, 150).

2 Ibid. x. 454 ; 12th March, 1536. 3 Ibid. 31.

62 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

of the ordinary law, and of the necessity of stern and
repressive administration, unhampered by the limita-
tions of the common law, the Lord President cannot be
regarded as the inspirer, or even a supporter, of the
legislation of 1535 and 1542. The spirit and policy of
the bishop are reflected rather in the legislation of 1534,
which strengthened the arm of the Government in the
repression of crime, and enlarged its powers to maintain
law and order. It is beyond question that the bishop
had no hand in any constructive legislation which had
for its object the association of the people of Wales with
the government of their country.

By 26 Henry VI 1 1., c. 4, it was enacted that as " Divers
adherents friends and kinsfolk to murderers and felons
have resorted to jurors, and have suborned them to
acquit divers murderers felons and accessories openly
and notoriously known, contrary to equity and justice,"
power should be vested in the Lord President to send
the recalcitrant jurors to prison 1 — a power which Bishop
Lee was prompt to use, as we have seen, four years later
at Chester.

Lee, so far from wishing to extend the common law
of England to Wales, was rather disposed, as has already
been seen, to suspend it altogether. Ellis Griffith ex-
pressly states that the statute 26 Henry VIII., c. 6
was passed at the instigation of Bishop Rowland. Its
preamble describes, in sonorous English, the condition
of Wales as viewed by him :

" Forasmuch as the People of Wales and the Marches

of the same, not dreading the good and wholesome Laws

and Statutes of this Realm, have of longtime continued

and persevered in Perpetration and Commission of

1 Bowen's Statutes of Wales, 58.

WALES AFTER THE CONQUEST : 1282-1542 63

divers and manifold Thefts, Murthers, Rebellions, Wilful
Burnings of Houses and other scelerous Deeds and
abominable Malefacts, to the high Displeasure of God,
Inquietation of the King's well-disposed Subjects, and
Disturbance of the Public Weal, which Malefacts and
scelerous Deeds be so rooted and fixed in the same people,
that they be not like to cease, unless some sharp Cor-
rection and Punishment for Redress and Amputation of
the Premisses be provided, according to the demerits of
the Offenders," 1 it is therefore enacted that all persons,
when duly summoned, should appear at the courts
within the Lordships Marcher upon penalty of a fine ;
if any officers in the Lordships Marcher illegally im-
prisoned any person, the Council of the Marches should
have power to levy a fine of not less than 6s. 8d. for
every day of wrongful imprisonment ; no weapons
should be brought within two miles of any court, fair,
town, church, or other assembly ; no person, without
the licence of the Council, should levy commorth, etc. ;
arthel should be discontinued ; felonies committed in
Wales should be triable in the next adjoining English
county ; and the officers of all Lordships Marcher
should aid in securing culprits fleeing from one lordship
to another upon penalty of a fine.

Another enactment of the same year throws a sig-
nificant light on the unruly condition of the Welsh
border. By 28 Henry VIII. , c. 11, Welshmen were
punished for attempting any assaults or affrays upon
the inhabitants of Herefordshire, Shropshire, or Glou-
cestershire, who had been " beaten, mayhemed, griev-
ously wounded, and sometimes murdered," by one year's
imprisonment " without redemption." 2

1 Ibid. pp. 54-62. 2 Ibid. p. 63.

64 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

So far we may conclude, even if we had not the positive
contemporary evidence of Ellis Griffith to the same
effect, that the legislation relating to Wales was due to
the initiatire of the new Lord President. It was de-
signed to deal directly and practically with the state of
lawless anarchy which prevailed in Wales and the
Marches. Its only object was to repress crime, and to
punish offenders against the law. It showed no gleam
of recognition of the fact that the condition of Wales
was due to any other cause than the inherent viciousness
of its inhabitants. " Malefacts and scelerous deeds "
were so " rooted and fixed " in the people that only the
most vigorous discipline could eradicate the evil. The
laws to which Wales was subject were " good and whole-
some," and all that was required was their more effective
administration. Such, therefore, we may take it, was
the policy of Bishop Rowland Lee, a strong man, a
resolute administrator, imbued with a contemptuous
pity for the " Welshery," honestly desirous of dragooning
them into a better conduct and condition, but a ruler
who lacked the higher qualities of statesmanship, not
endowed with sufficient imagination to penetrate into
the root and origin of the evils under which the country
was suffering, or to " know what shall chance in time
coming," and bereft of that sympathy with the subject
people without which even justice loses its healing grace.

CHAPTER II

GRANT OF A CONSTITUTION

In 1535 we notice a new spirit animating the policy of
the English Government in Wales, a spirit wholly alien
to the rough, practical, and unimaginative temper of
the Lord President. Henceforward, in the legislation
dealing with Wales there are evidences of a larger grasp,
a more daring statesmanship, a more adventurous spirit
to " make or mar."

The first Act of 1535 (27 Henry VIII., c. 5) empowered
the Lord Chancellor to appoint Justices of the Peace for
the eight ancient counties x of the Principality. The
justices were authorised to hold their sessions and the
sheriffs to execute their processes. At first blush this
would appear to be only the characteristic Tudor remedy
for the " indifferent ministration " of justice, but in
reality it constituted a very real and even daring advance.
To allow the law to be administered by Justices of the
Peace was to allow it to be administered by men of
Welsh descent and of Welsh sympathies. Up to that
time, as George Owen points out, there was hardly a
single Welshman entrusted with authority in Wales.

1 The counties mentioned in the Act are Anglesea, Carnarvon,
Merioneth and Flint in North Wales, and Cardigan, Carmarthen,'
Pembroke and Glamorgan in South Wales.

w.m.w. 65 E

66 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

The " men on the spot " were filled with dismal fore-
bodings as to the result that would ensue from the
Government's rash proceedings. It may be that Bishop
Rowland Lee was not consulted by the Government as
to the administration of the law in the ancient shires,
but he had an opportunity in 1536 of expressing his
views as to the competence of the " Welshery " to be
associated with the government of their own country.
In that year John Scudamore, Sheriff of Hereford,
wanted to know if he was to consider as shire-ground
certain Marches of Wales annexed to his shire. 1 Scuda-
more, however, was suspect. He was a descendant of
Owen Glyndwr, and was "dwelling nigh the Welshery
and kynned and alyed in the same." So far from
trusting the sheriff, Lee asked Cromwell that Scudamore
should be put out of the commission. 2 " There are,"
the Lord President gravely informed the Secretary of
State, " very few Welsh in Wales above Brecknock who
have £10 in land, and their discretion is less than their
land." By this time still further changes were in the
air. The Act of 1535 had decreed that the rest of what
is now called Wales should be turned into shire-ground.
The good bishop is full of gloomy predictions as to " the
bearing of thieves " if the statute goes forward. Car-
digan and Merioneth, he points out, are as disorderly as
the worst parts of Wales, although they are shire-
ground. 3 Even in the ancient counties themselves the
Government's decision to appoint Justices of the Peace
was viewed with dismay. Among the State Papers there
is to be found a document entitled : " Articles proving
that it shall be hurtful to the commonwealth of the three

1 State Papers, Henry VIII., vol. xii. 1338.

2 Ibid. xi. 1255. 3 Ibid. x. 453.

GRANT OF A CONSTITUTION 67

shires in North Wales, viz., Anglesey, Carnarvon, and
Merioneth, to have justices of the peace therein." The
justices will be dangerous, partiality will increase, the
inhabitants are poor and quarrelsome, and most of the
gentlemen are " bearers of thieves and misruled per-
sons." * Sir Richard Bulkeley, of Anglesey, was of the
same opinion, and begged Cromwell to stop the Lord
Chancellor from appointing any Justices of the Peace
within the three shires of North Wales.

The second Act of 1535 (27 Henry VIII. , c. 7) abolished
all the old cruel and barbarous forest customs, which
enabled the Lords Marcher to punish persons who were
travelling through a forest without a token, and without
being " yearly tributors," with a " grievous fine or
reward," and if twenty-four feet out of the highway,
with forfeiture of their money or the loss of one of their
hands. 2

The preamble to the " Act for making of Justices of
Peace in Wales " (27 Henry VIII., c. 5) stated that it
was passed " to the intent that one Order of ministering
of his Laws should be had observed and used in the
same as in other places of this Realm of England is had
and used." Henceforth that was the aim of English
statesmanship. Henry VIII. and his ministers had a
wholesome belief in the merits of English institutions.
They had come to the conclusion that what was good
for England was also good for Wales. They refused to
credit " the Welshery " with a double dose of original
sin. Shortsighted administrators and timorous officials
warned them in vain of the folly of applying institutions,
which might work well in orderly and civilised England,

1 Ibid. xi. 525,

a Bowen's Statutes of Wales, pp. 69-72.

68 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

to a disturbed and lawless country like Wales. They
refused to believe that Welsh gentlemen, when entrusted
with the powers of Justices of the Peace, would prove
more corrupt, more partial, or more negligent than their
fellows in England. They showed a robust faith even
in Welsh juries, in spite of Rowland Lee's sardonic
comment that to set a Welshman to judge a Welshman
was to set a thief to try a thief. At a time when the
Lord President was only at the beginning of his task of
repression, when courier after courier brought news of
the disorderly and anarchical condition of the Princi-
pality, and when every official was calling for a more
rigorous administration of the existing law, the English
Parliament passed one of the most liberal and the most
courageous Acts which has ever been laid to the credit
of the British legislature.

27 Henry VIII., c. 26 (a.d. 1535), which finally incor-
porated Wales with England, is described as " An Act
for Laws and justice to be ministered in Wales in like
form as it is in this Realm." The preamble ran as
follows :

" Albeit the Dominion Principality and Country of
Wales justly and righteously is, and ever hath been
incorporated annexed united and subject to and under
the Imperial Crown of this Realm as a very Member
and Joint of the same, whereof the King's most Royal
Majesty of Meer Droit, and very Right, is very Head
King Lord and Ruler ; yet notwithstanding because
that in the same Country, Principality, and Dominion
divers Rights Usages Laws and Customs be far dis-
crepant from the Laws and Customs of this Realm, and
also because that the People of the same Dominion have
and do daily use a speech nothing like, nor consonant

GRANT OF A CONSTITUTION 69

to the natural Mother Tongue used within this Realm,
some rude and ignorant People have made distinction
and Diversity between the King's Subjects of this Realm,
and his Subjects of the said Dominion and Principality
of Wales, whereby great Discord Variance Division Mur-
mur and Sedition hath grown between his said Subjects,
His Highness therefore of a singular Zeal Love and
Favour that he beareth towards his Subjects of his said
Dominion of Wales, minding and intending to reduce
them to the perfect Order Notice and Knowledge of his
Laws of this his Realm, and utterly to extirp all and
singular the sinister Usages and Customs differing from
the same, and to bring the said Subjects of this his
Realm and of his said Dominion of Wales to an amicable
Concord and Unity, hath . . . ordained, enacted, and
established " that Wales should be henceforth " incor-
porated united and annexed " to England, and that all
natives of Wales should enjoy and inherit " all and
singular Freedoms Liberties Rights Privileges and Laws "
of his subjects.

All laws, including the law of inheritance, " without
division or partition," were to be henceforth after the
form of England. 1 Forty-four of the Lordships Marcher
were united to English shires ; certain others were

1 This provision of S. 2 seems to be inconsistent with that of
S. 35, which enacted that lands " to be departed and departable
among issues and heirs male shall still so continue." " The
intention evidently was," says Mr. Ivor Bowen in the Introduction
to the Statutes of Wales, at p. 59, " that persons who retired upon
any right under the ancient Welsh system of tenure were called
upon to prove that it existed before the time of legal memory.
The apparent variance was, however, remedied by the complete
abolition of Welsh customs and rules of descent in 1542." But
even after 1542 the Welsh custom of inheritance died hard.
(See, e.g., 7 and 8 William III., c. 38.)

70 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

united to the existing Welsh shires ; still others were to
be " severed and divided into certain particular counties
or shires," which were then for the first time created,
viz. Monmouth, Brecknock, Radnor, Montgomery, and
Denbigh. The boundaries of certain of the Welsh and
Border counties were altered, and the Lord Chancellor
was empowered to appoint Justices of the Peace for the
four newly created Welsh counties. The justices and
all officials were to use only English in discharging their
duties, upon pain of forfeiting their offices.

" No Person or Persons that use the Welsh Speech or
Language shall have or enjoy any Manner Office or Fees
within this Realm of England Wales or other the King's
Dominion, upon pain of forfeiting the same Offices or
Fees, unless he or they use and exercise the English
Speech or Language." *

The Lord Chancellor was authorised to appoint Com-
missioners to divide the shires of Carmarthen, Pembroke,
Cardigan, Monmouth, Brecknock, Radnor, Montgomery,
Glamorgan, and Denbigh into hundreds, and another
Commission to inquire " all and singular Laws, Usages

1 Though S. 20 has never been abolished, and it would therefore
appear to be illegal to conduct proceedings in a law court in
Welsh, it has, perhaps, never been rigorously enforced, and of
late years it has become practically obsolete. Of one Edward
Davies, Gerard wrote to Walsingham, in 1575 : " He hath been
the Queen's Attorney in the marches and is well learned and
can speke the Welche Tonge, but no Welche man. Note that
it were verie conveniente that one of the Justices of assizes did
understande the Welche tonge, for now the justice of assize
must vse some interpretor. And therefore many tymes the
evidence is tolde according to the mynde of the Interpretor
whereby the evidence is expounded contrarie to that wch. is saide
by the examynate, and so the Judge gyveth a wronge charge."
The practical " convenience " of a Judge being acquainted with
Welsh has long been recognised in the appointment of County
Court Judges in Wales.

GRANT OF A CONSTITUTION 7 1

and Customs used within the same Dominion and
Country of Wales," and such as may be thought by the
King and Council " requisite and necessary " should
remain. 1 For the first time parliamentary representa-
tion was given to Wales 2 — one knight to sit for each of
the shires, except Monmouth, which had two repre-
sentatives, and one burgess for each shire town, except
the shire town of Merioneth, which was exempted from
the privilege. " Such fees as other Knights and Bur-
gesses of the Parliament have been allowed " were to be
paid to the new members ; so that the representatives
of Wales were the first members of Parliament for whose
payment express statutory provision was made. 3 The
rights and privileges of the Lords Marcher were swept
away, except that they were to continue to hold Courts
Baron Courts Leet, and Law-days, and to retain certain
privileges, such as treasure-trove.

With the usual confidence of Henry VIII.'s Parlia-
ments in the sovereign, power was granted to the king
for three years after the dissolution of Parliament to
suspend or repeal the Act. It is a tribute to the success
of the Act that the king never used the authority en-
trusted to him by Parliament. As has already been

1 No records of these Commissions are extant, though S. 3 of
the Act of 1542 would seem to imply that, at least, the first set of
Commissioners did their work. Rowland states, in his Mona
Anliqua, copies of the proceedings of the Commissioners were
deposited in both the chamberlain's and auditor's offices of North
Wales ; and that Sir W. Griffith of Penrhyn caused them to be
transcribed by one Jenkyn Gwyn, and that they are intituled
" the extent of North Wales."

* Except in two of Edward II. 's Parliaments, in 1322 and 1327.

3 By 35 Henry VIII., p. 1 1, provision was made for the payment
of 4s. to every knight of the shire, and 23. a day " unto every
Citizen Burgess " from Wales by the Sheriffs and Mayors.

72 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

seen, neither Bishop Lee nor the other officials were
enamoured of the liberal policy embodied in the Act,
and they advised the king to postpone the appointment
of Justices of the Peace. But, as far as is known, not
even the Lord President went to the length of advising
the king to repeal the Act, although he had appealed to
Cromwell not to let " the Statute go forward." In the
following year (1536) a short Act was passed giving power
to the king during the next three years to determine
the limits of the Welsh shires, and to name the shire
towns (28 Henry VIII., c. 3). For some reason or other
— partly no doubt owing to the lack of sympathy with
the policy felt and expressed by Bishop Lee and the
other officials — it was found impossible to get the work
done within the prescribed time. In 1539 it was found
necessary to extend the time for another three years
(31 Henry VIII., c. 11), and it was only in 1542 that the
last of the three Acts which created modern Wales was
passed.

34 and 35 Henry VIII., c. 26 (1542-3), " An Act for
certain ordinances in the King's Dominion and Prin-
cipality of Wales," marked the passing away of the old
order and the old school of statesmanship. It did away,
finally and completely, with the Lordships Marcher,
and with the abuses which were associated with their
existence. It gave to Wales the geographical limits
which she still retains, and though the institutions which
it established have now disappeared, they existed, one
for a century and a half, and another for wellnigh three
centuries. 1 It made the " resolute Government " of
Bishop Lee unnecessary and anomalous, and Wales
neither saw nor required his like again. The stout

1 Denbighshire was formed out of the Hiraethog district

GRANT OF A CONSTITUTION 73

bishop's friends and coadjutors did not live to see the
end of their order. Mr. Justice Englefield, " for lernnige
and discreete modest behavoor comparable with any in
the Realme," had died in 1537. Bishop Rowland had
felt his loss keenly, and begged Cromwell to replace him
with " someone of lerning and experience. I shall do
my part while my rude carcass shall endure. Remember
the commonwealth of these parts, which if I have not
help will decay again." In 1539 Sir Richard Herbert
died — " the best of his name I know," said Lee. ' I
have as great a loss of him as though I had lost one of
my arms in governing Powes, Kery, Kedewen, and
Cloonesland." Next year he lost Sir William Sulyard
and Mr. Justice Porte. Nor did the good bishop him-
self long survive his colleagues. The toil, which he said
had " brought many honest men to their death," was
soon to bring his own " rude carcass " to the dust.
About the end of January, 1543, he died at the College

between the Conway and the Clwyd, the lordships of Denbigh
and Ruthin, and Welsh Maelor.

Montgomeryshire out of Arwystli and Cyveiliog.

Radnorshire out of Melenydd and Elvel.

Brecknockshire out of the old lordships of Brycheiniog.

Monmouthshire out of Gwent, and the Gwynllwg portion of
old Morgannwg.

To the old county of Glamorgan was added Gower ; to Pem-
broke the Welsh tract (old Dyved) between Haverfordwest and
the Tivy ; to Carmarthenshire Llandovery and Abermarles in
the Vale of Towy and Laugharne in the West, and Carnwyllion
and Kidwelly in the South ; to Cardiganshire the lordship of
Tregaron ; and to Merionethshire the lordship of Mawddwy.

Of the 136 Lordships Marcher mentioned in the Act, Miss
Skeel computes that 52, as well as Arwystli and Cyveiliog, had
fallen to the Crown. The most important still in the hands of
Lords Marcher were Molesdale, Hopedale, and Ellesmere in the
possession of Lord Derby ; Raglan, Chepstow, and Gower in the
possession of Lord Worcester ; and Powysland in the possession
of Lord Powys (p. 292).

74 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

of St. Chad's, Shrewsbury, of which his brother was
dean, and was buried in St. Chad's Church. He died
at the zenith of his fame, when his work was done. He
had upheld the arm of law and order in a time of anarchy.
He had carried the terror of his name to the wilds of
Melenith and Arwystli. He had meted out justice with-
out favour, if without mercy. By the success of his
stern administration he had made it possible for the
far-sighted statesmen of Henry VIII. to apply to Wales
the healing policy of trust and confidence. Had he
failed, the concessions of 1535 and 1542 might have
been made impossible, because they would almost cer-
tainly have been misunderstood. He had bridged over
the transition period between chaos and ordered liberty.
He died at a fortunate juncture for his after-fame. He
disliked and distrusted the policy of which the Act of
1542 was the climax and the coping-stone. 1 His distrust
of " the Welshery " was ineradicable, and he was too
old to learn the lesson which not even the genius of
Burke or the eloquence of Bright has sufficed to make
clear to the world : that force is no remedy, and repres-
sion is " ill husbandry." He had done what he could
to postpone the day when Wales would be on a political
equality with England. Had he survived, it may well
be doubted if he would not have retarded rather than
expedited the development of Wales into a law-abiding
and contented portion of the realm. His rough-and-
ready methods, however admirable in times of anarchy,

1 The bishop was asked in T540 to set the Commissioners to
work on the delimitation of Denbighshire and to give his opinion
as to the expediency of the change. He sourly replied that he
was not privy of any such commission, and trusted that his
opinion would not be required, " for I am not of that perfectness
to know what shall chance in time coming."

GRANT OF A CONSTITUTION 75

woulcHiave provoked hostility to the law in the brighter
days that were about to dawn on Wales. His rude
justice would have inevitably brought him into conflict
with those who were to be responsible for the government
of the new Wales. He had little faith in Justices of the
Peace or in jurors, and doubtless he would have used
the supervising powers of the Court of the Marches to
the utmost in order to restrain what, to him, would
appear the partiality of justices or the corruption of
juries. His court at Ludlow was modelled on the
example of the Star Chamber. For at least a century
after his death it was, if not popular, at least not actively
unpopular in Wales. Down to the reign of James I. it
undoubtedly did valuable work in the Principality.
This it was able to do because it was neither meddlesome
nor mischievous. It worked harmoniously with the
ordinary courts, and it did not interfere unduly or
capriciously with the discretion of Justices of the Peace
and other officers of the law. But with a suspicious
and sceptical Lord President at Ludlow, things would
have fared very differently, and Bishop Rowland would
probably have involved the Court of the Marches in as
much unpopularity as afterwards brought about the
downfall of its exemplar and prototype, the Star
Chamber.

The Act of 1542 consists of one hundred and thirty
sections. It recites that it was passed " at the humble
suit and petition ' ' of the people of Wales, but no record
of the petition is extant. 1 By dividing Wales into
twelve counties, Monmouthshire, which was and has
continued to be Welsh in blood, sympathy, and, until

1 Unless it be the petition already cited from Lord Herbert's
Life of Henry VIII.

76 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

lately, to a large extent in language, was excluded from
the geographical area of the Principality. 1 The twelve
counties of Wales were to consist of the eight ancient
shires and counties, and the four new shires created by
the Act of 1535 . The division of the shires into hundreds
by the Commission appointed under the previous Act
was confirmed. By section 4, statutory recognition was
accorded to the Court of the Council of the Marches :

" There shall be and remain a President and Council
in the said Dominion and Principality of Wales, and the
Marches of the same, with all Officers, Clerks, and
Incidents to the same in Manner and Form as hath
been heretofore used and accustomed ; which President
and Council shall have Power and Authority to hear
and determine, by their Wisdoms and Discretions, such
causes and matters as be or hereafter shall be assigned
to them by the King's Majestv, as heretofore hath been
accustomed and used."

It is true that in previous statutes, such as 26 Henry
VIII., c. 4, and 26 Henry VIII., c. 6, the Court and the
Lord President had been mentioned, and to some extent
therefore their existence and powers had been regu-
larised. But the Councils of the North and of the West
(the former of which had been created by the king after
the suppression of the Pilgrimage of Grace in 1536) had

1 It is curious with what persistence the people of Wales have
clung to Monmouthshire as a Welsh county. George Owen, in
his " Dialogue " (Owen's Pembrokeshire, pt. iii. p. 39), speaks
of Wales as having been divided into thirteen counties. Shake-
speare makes Fluellen speak of Monmouth as a Welsh town.
Stephen Hughes, in the preface to one of his publications printed
in the reign of Charles II., refers (as is commonly done in Wales
still) to the thirteen counties of Wales. Of recent years, for
the purposes of educational administration, Monmouthshire has
been recognised as forming part of Wales.

GRANT OF A CONSTITUTION 77

been mentioned, together with the Ludlow Court, in
the Subsidy Act of 1540 (32 Henry VIII., c. 50, which
was not enrolled in Chancery). But they were simply
mentioned as being a source of expense to the king,
though the existence of the Ludlow Court is justified on
the ground that poor and rich thereby " have undelayed
Justice day lye administered unto them." But the direct
and regular recognition in the statute of the Court of
the Marches, which had been called into existence by
the exercise of the king's prerogative, placed it in a
different category from the Council of the North and
the Star Chamber. It fell, with the other prerogative
courts, before the reforming energy of the Long Parlia-
ment ; but, while the others fell to rise no more, the civil
jurisdiction of the Court of the Marches was revived at
the Restoration. It was only after the Revolution of
1688 that it finally passed out of existence.

Side by side, however, with the Court of the Marches,
there was created a new system of courts, called " the
King's Great Sessions in Wales," which will be described
in further detail in another chapter. Sheriffs for each
of the twelve counties were to be appointed yearly by
the Crown out of three names which were to be sub-
mitted by the President of the Council. The sheriffs
were to hold their County and Hundred Courts monthly,
and over their actions the President and the Council
kept strict observation. Nearly all the Welsh sheriffs
were members of the Council, and they were bound to
execute all lawful commands of the Lord President and
the Council. If we may trust the " Dialogue " of George
Owen, which contains the best description we have of
the functions of the Council of the Marches and its
relations with the other local courts and officials of

78 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

Wales, sheriffs had tried, by placing a wrong construction
on sections 73 and 74 of the Act of 1542, to erect new
Hundred Courts for the purpose of extortion. The
Council had fined sheriffs for such practices, and in
Brecknockshire, at least, the evil had been nipped in
the bud. But, up to the last days of the Council, its
relations with the sheriffs were not cordial, and during
the presidency of the Earl of Bridgwater (1631) there
were instances where the sheriffs flatly refused to carry
out the Council's orders. 1

By section 53 it was enacted that Justices of the
Peace and of the Quorum, and one custos rotulorum,

1 George Owen, in his " Dialogue of the Government of Wales "
(Owen's Pembrokeshire, ii. 63-81), gives a full and interesting
account of the abuses arising out of the estabUshment of Hundred
Courts in Wales. There were, he says, 23 such Hundred Courts
or " commots " held in the ancient counties of North Wales
before 1542, but there were no Manor Courts, no Courts Baron
(i.e. Court of the freeholders of the Manor), or Courts Leet
(i.e. manorial courts of criminal jurisdiction which were granted
to particular manors by the Crown) held therein. The intention
of sees. 72 and 73 of the Act of 1542 was to preserve these ancient
courts, but to direct that henceforth they should administer
the English law after the English usage. Until the end of
the reign of Mary, no attempt was made to set up Hundred
Courts in the new Hundreds which had been constituted by
Henry VIII. 's legislation. In the reign of Elizabeth, however,
Hundred Courts were set up in the new Hundreds, and as they
were held every fortnight, whereas the County Courts were
only held once a month, the Hundred Courts were thronged
with suitors, whereas the County Courts — which were far and
away the best of the " base courts " (i.e. courts not of record) —
were deserted. He describes, as an eye-witness, the evils which
resulted. The Hundred Courts were presided over by the
Under- Sheriff, the procedure was imperfect, " embracery "
(i.e. corruption of juries) was universal, and oppression was
rife. The Council of the Marches had interfered with good
results in Brecknock, Glamorgan and Montgomery, and the
Chief Baron, when on circuit in Monmouthshire, had summarily
put an end to the abuse in that county. But he complains that
in the rest of Wales the evil was still rampant.

GRANT OF A CONSTITUTION 79

should be appointed for each county by the Lord Chan-
cellor, on the advice of the President and the Council.
By section 55 the number of such justices was limited
to eight for each county — no doubt on account of the
difficulty which was experienced, or feared, of finding a
greater number of men of substance, position, and
education to fill such posts. The limitation on the
number of justices was not removed till 1693 (5 William
and Mary, c. 4). The Justices of the Peace were to
hold their sessions four times a year. The Lord Presi-
dent was, in practice, the Lord-Lieutenant for the twelve
counties of Wales, and most of the high officials of the
Council were on the commission of the peace for each
of the Welsh counties.

A very salutary jurisdiction was exercised by the
Council over the various borough courts of Wales.
George Owen, in his " Dialogue," complains that there
were too many corporate towns in Wales having private
courts of record for personal actions to any amount.
' There are in Wales yet (1594)," he said, " a multitude
of very meane villages scarce having six houses or
cottages, and yet are allowed for Corporations and
Boroughs." As the Council had an appellate juris-
diction in personal actions, it was able to mitigate the
evils resulting from the multiplicity of obscure borough
courts, and in time these courts seem to have entirely
disappeared.

By section 68 it was enacted that two coroners should
be elected in each shire as in England, and by section 70
the Justices of the Peace were empowered to appoint
two chief constables for the hundred wherein they dwelt.

Though justice was to be generally administered
according to the English law, it was thought expedient

80 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

to enact in particular that the old Welsh law should be
superseded in two points. By section 84 it was for-
bidden to put a murderer or a felon to his fine, and by
section 100 private arrangements between parties in
cases of murder and felony were made punishable by
fine and imprisonment at the discretion of the President
and the Council. By sections 91 and 128 gavelkind was
abolished, and the English law of descent was specifically
introduced into Wales. 1

Such, in its main outlines, was the policy, daringly
conceived and consistently carried out, which reduced
Wales, in the course of a single generation, to a state
of order and obedience to the law. It associated the
people of Wales with the government of their own
country. Justices of the Peace under the Tudors were
invested with far greater powers than they are in our
own days. 2 They formed the permanent and almost
the only machinery for local government in their coun-
ties, and though their actions were subject to the super-
vision of the Council at Ludlow, in ordinary circum-
stances they were supreme in their own sphere. They

1 The full text of the statute will be found in Bowen's Statutes
of Wales, pp. 101-133.

2 George Owen in his " Dialogue " (Owen's Pembrokeshire, vol. ii.
p. 60) enumerates the functions of Justices of the Peace in those
days (1593). In their Quarter Sessions (held four times a year)
they bound persons over to keep the peace, they dealt summarily
with the lesser felonies and committed the graver felonies to
the Great Sessions ; they tried cases of trespass, assaults, affrays,
riots, routs, unlawful assemblies, embraceries (i.e. attempts
to corrupt juries), maintenance ; they licensed and regulated
ale-houses ; they punished persons indulging in unlawful games ;
they took order for servants' and labourers' wages and covenants
(5 Elizabeth, c. 14, s. 15), " and a multitude of other matters
are referred to trie hearing and examining of those Justices
of the Peace both in theyr Sessions and out of theyr Sessions
tending to the good and quyett government of the Cuntrey."

GRANT OF A CONSTITUTION 81

were not only conservators of the peace, but to them
was entrusted the duty of appointing local officials, and
to discharge the functions now vested in County and
District Councils and Quarter Sessions. Individually,
also, each had jurisdiction over all minor offences in his
own district. In the time of Henry VIII. the Welsh
gentry had not become anglicised either in speech or
sentiment or habits. Henry VII., who was brought up
at Raglan Castle under the tutorship of William Herbert,
first Earl of Pembroke, of the first creation, never lost
his interest in Welsh poetry, and after he had come into
his kingdom, he sometimes called in " Welsh rhymers "
to charm away the brooding melancholy which the cares
of state cast upon his spirit. 1 The Welsh traditions of
the Herberts survived into the next century. Dr.
Griffith Roberts of Milan, in dedicating his Welsh
grammar to William Herbert, the first Earl of Pembroke
of the second creation, holds him up as an example to
the other gentlefolk in Wales, and states that whenever
the Earl met a countryman in court, he always addressed
him in his native tongue. 2 In the next century, Lord

1 Polit. Hist, of England, vol. v. (Fisher), p. 150. In Dec. 1485
Henry granted f.20 a year to Philip ap Howel and his wife " some-
time our nurse " of Carmarthenshire.

2 " Canys e wyr holl gymru a lloegr faint ych serch i'r
fruttaniaith, pryd na ddoedech wrth gymro ond cymraeg, ie,
ymysg penaduriaid y deyrnas " (1565). William Ll>»n, in his
elegy (1570), said of the Earl :

Pe bair Iarll pybyr i win
Oil ger bron Lloegr ai brenin
Doeded ef a di dafar

Gymraec wrth Gymro ai gar.

(Barddoniaeth William Llyn, ed. Morice, 1908, p. 73.) Hopcyn,
in the Introduction to Hen Gwndidau (p. xli.), without, however,
giving his authority, states that the Earl was himself a poet, and
composed inter alia two Welsh Triads, one of which was as
w.m.w. f

82 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

Herbert of Cherbury records that he was sent in his
youth to live in Denbighshire in order that he might
learn Welsh. 1 If the magnates were so Welsh in tongue
and sympathy, the smaller gentry in the time of Henry
VIII. may be presumed to have even more Welsh and
less English. They were not rich — Bishop Rowland Lee
exclaimed that from Brecknock to the north there were
no " Welshery " who were worth £10 a year in land. 2
Alien officials thought that they would be therefore more
prone to be influenced by corrupt and sinister motives
in carrying out the duties of administration. They were
not " educated," in the sense in which the word would
be used, in England. It was indeed an audacious experi-

follows : " The three things that make a man wise are : the
genius of a Cymro, the courtesy of a Frenchman, and the industry
of a Saxon." Sir Owen Edwards (Wales, p. 326) states that
the only language he knew well was Welsh. Miss Skeel (p. 82)
goes further, and says that "in the Calais negotiations in 1555
he was nearly useless " — on account of his imperfect knowledge
of English— a statement, having regard to the many years spent
by the Earl in England and France, which is frankly incredible.
Miss Skeel cites no authority for her statement.

1 Autobiography, p. 24.

2 18 Hen. VII. c. 11, recites that some of the Justices of the
Peace be of small behaviour (substance) by whom the people
will not be governed nor ruled, and some " for their necessity do
great extortion and oppression upon the people," and enacts
that no Justice of the Peace be assigned "if he have not lands
or tenements to the value of ^20 by year." Bishop Lee had this
statute in mind when he said that no Welshmen above Brecon
had ^10 a year. The statute 34 and 35 Hen. VIII., c. 26, s. 56,
recognised the truth of this observation, and enacted that
Justices of the Peace shall be of " good name and fame " and
may exercise their office " albeit they may not dispend £20,
but be learned in the laws of the land." By the end of the
century, however, so greatly had Wales prospered, that George
Owen thought the same property qualification could well be
exacted in Wales and in England. (See " Dialogue " in Owen's
Pembrokeshire, vol. ii. pp. 56-7.)

GRANT OF A CONSTITUTION 83

ment to entrust such extensive powers, subject to little
supervision on the part of the central authority, to such
persons.

Similarly trial by jury was introduced into the whole
of Wales, into the counties where " malefacts and
scelerous deeds " were rife as well as into the more
settled counties of Glamorgan and Flint.

Last but not least, parliamentary representation was
given to Wales. It is a proud reflection that Wales is
England's oldest ally and partner in her resplendent
career. At a time when Scotland was an independent
and hostile kingdom, and when the greater part of
Ireland was given over to the " Wild Irish," and the
English Pale, though represented in a Dublin Parlia-
ment, was enjoying only constitutional privileges as
limited by Poynings' Law, Wales entered into the full
inheritance of the English Constitution. Her sons sat
shoulder to shoulder with the knights and burgesses of
England, as they wrought to fashion a new order and a
new society. With them they faced and solved the
ever-changing problems and difficulties of a transitional
era. They helped in the various settlements of religion,
under Henry VIII., under Mary, under Elizabeth, and
under Charles II. They shared in the anxieties that
racked this kingdom when Philip II. was preparing to
launch the invincible Armada. They played their
valorous part on land and sea

When lofty Spain came towering up the seas
This little land to daunt and quell.

The Members for Wales shared in the great struggle
for constitutional rights which was the outstanding
feature of Stuart politics — rights which will soon become

84 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

the common heritage of the world. Most of them, and
most of their countrymen, took the king's side in the
Puritan Rebellion ; but if a Welshman was the last to
hold out for the king at Harlech, if Judge Jenkins of
Hensol defied the House of Commons at its own bar as
a den of thieves, responding to the threat to hang him
by saying that he would hang with the Bible under one
arm and Magna Carta under the other ; 1 Thomas Wogan,
Member for Cardigan, and John Jones of Maes-y-
Garnedd, Member for Merioneth, were among those who
signed the death-warrant of Charles, and the names of
Sir Thomas Morgan and Philip " Lord Jones," of Walter
Cradock, Vavasour Powell, and Morgan Llwyd, of
William Erbuiy and Christopher Love, are sufficient to
prove that not all the best Welshmen were arrayed
against the cause of Parliament. 2 Nor did Welshmen
abstain from shouldering the burden of colonising the
New World. In New England and in Virginia there are
still to be found families who are proud to trace their
descent from early Welsh settlers. When the illustrious
Bacon, " the greatest intellect that ever combined power

1 Owen Edwards's Wales, p. 373.

2 The following Welsh Members were Royalists : William
Herbert (Cardiff) and Charles Price (Radnorshire), who both
fell in the war ; John Bodville (Anglesey), William Price of
Rhiwlas (Merioneth), Richard Herbert (Montgomery), Henry
Vaughan of Derwydd (Carmarthenshire), Francis Lloyd of
Maesyvelin (Carmarthen), Sir John Stepney (Haverfordwest),
Sir Edward Steadling (Glamorgan), Herbert Price (Brecon),
Richard Jones of Trewern (Radnor), Wm. Thomas of Aber
(Carnarvon), John Salisbury (Flint), Simon Thelwall of Plas-y-
Ward (Denbigh), Walter Lloyd (Cardiganshire), John Vaughan
of Trawscoed (Cardigan), W. Morgan (Brecknockshire), and
John Griffith of Cefnamlwch (Beaumaris), who died on the eve
of the war.

Sir John Price of Newtown (Montgomeryshire), Hugh Owen of
Orielton (Pembroke), and Sir Thomas Middleton (Denbigh) gave

GRANT OF A CONSTITUTION 85

in thought with responsible practice in affairs of State," 1
and others formed " a company of adventurers " in
1610 to colonise Newfoundland, our premier colony, one
of their most enthusiastic supporters was William
Vaughan of Torcoed in the county of Carmarthen, poet,
scholar, and pioneer. He bestowed the names of the
counties of South Wales 2 on the several districts which
he had acquired, and on the whole colony, situate on
the south coast at the head of Trepassey Bay, he con-
ferred the resounding title of Cambriol. When Oliver
Cromwell, who was never averse to be reminded of his
Welsh origin, annexed Jamaica and made it the first
British Crown Colony, the success of the venture was
materially assisted by the devoted loyalty of Welshmen
in the island, the most redoubtable of whom was Sir
Henry Morgan "the Buccaneer." 3 Representatives from
Wales — one or two of them in high positions — shared
in the deliberations of their English colleagues during the
uncertainties and turmoils attending the Great Revolu-
tion of 1688. It was the votes of the Welsh members
that turned the scale in the division lobby in favour of

ntful support to the Parliamentarians. Henry Herbert, in
addition to Thomas Wogan and John Jones, was consistently
against the king. Sir Nicholas Kemeys, who had represented
Monmouth in the Parliament of 1628, died in defending Chepstow
Castle against Cromwell in the Second Civil War (see Owen
Edwards's Wales, c. xxiii.). Algernon Sidney became Member
for Cardiff in 1646 ; but he was never returned to Parliament
after the Restoration and was not, as Sir Owen Edwards seems
to suppose (Wales, p. 383), a Welsh member when he was tried
by Jeffreys in 1682.

1 Morley's Politics and History, p. 49.

J Except Radnorshire.

3 For the origin and career of Henry Morgan, see the writer's
article in the Transactions of the Cymmr odor ion Society
(1903-4)-

86 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

the accession of the House of Brunswick to the British
throne. Nearly four centuries have elapsed since Wales
was granted a constitution, and Welshmen were endowed
with the full privileges of English citizenship. At no
juncture during that time have Welshmen proved
factious or disloyal. In peace and war, in storm and
sunshine, Wales has been loyal to the partnership. " An
easier people to govern, Europe holdeth not," as Sir
Henry Sidney said nearly three hundred and fifty years
ago. Not that their placidity was due to lack of spirit,
or that the miscalled " canker of peace " had destroyed
the virility of the nation. The Great War has proved
that in Wales, as in the rest of the kingdom, the old
martial spirit will still respond to freedom's clarion call.
Wales has been law-abiding, because she has learned to
respect the law ; she has been loyal, because she has
been justly and equally treated. With rare vision the
English poet predicted — and his prediction has been
abundantly verified — five years before the war, that
Wales would not fail in the testing time. 1

On Europe, East and West, the dim clouds brood,
Disperse and gather again : and none can tell
What birth they hold within them. But we know
That should they break in tempest on our shores,
You, that with differing blood, with differing spirit,
Yet link your fate with ours, with ours your fate,
Will stand beside us in the hurricane,
Steadfast, whatever peril may befall.

1 William Watson, Wales : a Greeting, 1909.

CHAPTER III
COUNCIL OF THE MARCHES : 1542-1689

After 1542 the Council of the Marches entered upon a
new phase in its history. Hitherto it had maintained
a precarious existence as a prerogative court, whose life
and powers were entirely dependent on the will or
caprice of the sovereign. For years in succession it had
remained in a state of suspended animation, the mere
simulacrum of a court or a council. Then again, as
under Bishop Smyth, it had performed a useful if some-
what ornamental service in attaching Wales to the
Crown. Under the strenuous guidance of Rowland Lee
it had wielded a real power in the State, and had helped
to introduce law and order into the Marches. But a
change of ministers or the death of the king might have
at any moment altered its whole position. After 1542,
however, its position was assured. For the first time it
received statutory recognition. Section 4 of the 1542
Act gave to the President and Council " power and
authority to hear and determine by their wisdoms and
discretions such causes and matters as be or hereafter
shall be assigned to them by the King's Majesty, as
heretofore hath been accustomed and used." This pro-
vision was merely declaratory of the position which it
had hitherto occupied. Parliament empowered it to
carry out the orders of the king, a sanction which the
Council of the North, which had lately been set up to

87

88 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

deal with the aftermath of the Pilgrimage of Grace,
never obtained. But the Council of the Marches was
to be henceforward something more than a prerogative
court. It was given a general concurrent jurisdiction —
common law and equitable — with the Court of Great
Sessions ; and it was given an appellate jurisdiction in
personal actions. The appeal in real and mixed actions
was to the Court of King's at Westminster. 1

No local habitation was fixed for it. Bishop Rowland
was an itinerant justiciar. He fixed his court at will,
amidst the thieves of Presteign or the outlaws of Llan-
gollen, or in the stately halls of Shrewsbury or Ludlow.
Like an Eastern Cadi he dispensed justice sometimes in
the open air. Sometimes he acted by himself, at other
times he was glad of the assistance of his colleagues,
Mr. Justice Englefield and Mr. Justice Porte. When
Sir Richard Herbert of Montgomery died in 1539, he
exclaimed to Cromwell that he would sooner have
lost his arm. The Statute of 1542 did not expressly
tie the Council of the Marches to one definite locality.
During the next century we find that the Council met
occasionally at Hereford, at Worcester, at Gloucester,
at Tewkesbury, at Hartlebury, and at Oswestry. The
only place in Wales proper where it is ever recorded to
have sat was Wrexham. More often it met at Shrews-
bury, which in those days was more than half Welsh,
the old capital of Powys before the invaders drove the
Prince of Mid- Wales from Pengwern to Mathrafal in
Montgomery, and in those days still the chief town and
mart in the Marches of Wales. Still oftener it met at
Bewdley, the " comely " town set on a hill overlooking

1 After the abolition of the Council in 1689, the appellate
jurisdiction was transferred to the House of Lords.

COUNCIL OF THE MARCHES: 1542-1689 89

the Severn, which stirred Leland to admiration. It is,
he said, " sette on the syde of a hill, soe comely a man
cannot wish to see a towne better. ... At the rising
of the sun from the East the whole towne glittereth,
being all of new building, as it were of gould." x The
antiquary probably visited Bewdley about 1537, when
the little township which had sprung up around Ticken-
hill Manor was indeed new. The Manor House — " a
fayre manour place by the West of the towne, standinge
in a goodly parke well wooded, on the very knappe of
the hill that the towne standeth on " — had been first
built by Richard, Duke of York and Earl of March, a
hundred years or so before. It is only a few miles to
the east of his strongholds, Ludlow Castle and Wigmore.
When Prince Arthur was sent to hold his court in the
Marches, the old manor house was transformed into a
princely palace. Here he was married by proxy to
Catherine of Arragon in the presence of Bishop Smyth ;
thither he brought his young bride, and resided for the
short remnant of his life. After his death in 1502, the
palace fell into disrepair, but was put in order for the
reception of the Lady Mary, when her father sent her
in 1525 to hold her court in the Marches. Haifa century
after, the " house of Tickenhill " was said to be " of
often resort of the President and Council." 2 But its
glory departed with the sixteenth century. The Stuart
king let it to Sir Ralph Clare, who grudged the expense
of keeping it in repair, and still more the inconvenience
of offering occasional hospitality to the President and
the Council.

1 I tin. iv. 183 b.

2 The great Shrewsbury case, of which the most complete record
is extant, was tried at Bewdley (see Skeel, pp. 229-234).

90 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

One of the complaints made against the Council was
that suitors never knew for certain where the Sessions
would take place. 1 The presence of the Council brought
considerable profit to a town, and there was naturally
a keen competition for it. It was alleged that officers
of the Court were bribed to effect such a change, and
that suitors from the remote parts of Wales were com-
pelled to inquire on their way where the Council would
meet. 2 But, as time went on, Ludlow became more and
more associated with the Council, and among Welsh
people it came to be known as " the Court of Ludlow."

No fitter place could be chosen for the location of a
court for Wales and the four border counties of Shrop-
shire, Hereford, Worcester, and Gloucester. It is the
natural centre of the March counties, and it is within
easy distance of Mid-Wales. Churchyard describes " the
towne of noble fame " in his pedestrian verse :

The towne doth stand most part upon an hill

Built well and fayre, with streets both large and wide ;

The houses such, where strangers lodge at will,

As long as there the Councell lists abide,

Both fine and cleare the streetes are all throughout,

With condits cleere and wholesome water springs :

And who that lists to walke the towne about,

Shall find therein some rare and pleasant things :

But chiefly there the ayre so sweet you have,

As in no place ye can no better crave. 3

The castle, fair and stately even to-day in its ruins,
commands the township. It was originally built by
Roger of Montgomery ; it was forfeited to the Crown
by the attainder of Robert of Belleme. It was one link

1 Lansdowne MSS. 76, pp. 141 b-9.

2 Ibid. 60, pp. 103-12, arts. g-io.

3 Churchyard's Worthiness of Wales, first published in 1587.

COUNCIL OF THE MARCHES : 1542-1689 91

in the chain of sixteen castles that the Normans built in
the Marches both to stop the incursions of the Welsh
and to act as citadels whence they could harry their
enemy over the borders. One of its towers is still called
Mortimer's Tower, in remembrance of the imprisonment
in it of Hugh Mortimer by his enemy Joce de Dinan,
the castellan of Ludlow. In its hall the Sieur de Join-
ville, whose brother had married Maud, the heiress of
the de Lacy who owned the castle, feasted with all the
magnates of the March before he went with St. Louis
of France on the Seventh Crusade in 1248. Here Gilbert
de Clare, Earl of Gloucester and Lord of Glamorgan,
came to meet Prince Edward, who had escaped from
his imprisonment at Hereford, and made the pact which
enabled the prince to renew the war with the Barons
and which led to the defeat and death of Simon de
Montfort at the battle of Evesham. Here Roger Morti-
mer, Earl of March, who had married Maud's great-
granddaughter, brought young King Edward III., and
sought to efface the foul wrong he had done his parents
by entertaining him with jousts and tournaments and
all the diversions familiar to the age of chivalry. Here
his descendant, another Roger Mortimer, brought his
bride, the Lady Philippa, daughter of Lionel, Duke of
Clarence, and united the blood of the great Llewelyn,
the representative of the oldest reigning house in Europe,
with that of the proud and upstart Plantagenets. Here
Edmund Mortimer * mustered his forces in order to meet
the fierce onrush of Glyndwr on Melenydd, and it was

1 Miss Skeel (p. 182) makes one of her rare slips in confusing
Edmund Mortimer, Glyndwr's son-in-law, who was killed at the
siege of Harlech in 1409, with his nephew Edmund, who died
of the plague in Ireland in 1525, aet. 34, leaving his cousin, the
Duke of York, as his heir.

92 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

from Ludlow that he sallied forth to the fatal field of
Pilleth. Here Richard, Duke of York, heir to the vast
Mortimer lordships through his mother, the niece of
the ill-fated Edmund, gathered for the first time his
forces in order to commence the bloody welter of the
Wars of the Roses. Here came young Prince Edward,
the son of Edward IV., to hold the only court he was
destined to hold. Here died Prince Arthur. Here the
Princess Mary, in her youthful prime, spent the happiest
years of her gloomy and care-worn life. Here Rowland
Lee stormed and blustered, hawked and hunted and
feasted and indulged his love of building. But if the
old town and castle were charged with fierce memories
of the wars and tragedies of the past, they were destined
to enjoy still nobler associations in the future. Sir Henry
Sidney, scholar, statesman, and warrior, one of the
greatest Englishmen even in the " spacious days of great
Elizabeth," was to reside here for the best part of
twenty-seven years. After his strenuous struggles with
the O'Neils, the Butlers, and the Rory O'Mores of
Ireland, he gratefully returned to the government of
the gentle people of Wales ; to the superintendence of
the education of his " little Philip " in Shrewsbury
school ; to the affectionate care of his wife, the Lady
Mary Dudley, the Earl of Leicester's sister, who sacrificed
her young beauty by nursing Queen Elizabeth through
an attack of smallpox and catching the infection her-
self ; and to adding to the castle buildings which would
make it fit to be the residence of one who ruled over a
third of the realm of England. 1 When he came to die

1 Over the entrance to the inner court of the castle there still
remains an inscription recording that it was built by Sidney, with
the motto " hominibus ingratis loquimini lapides."

COUNCIL OF THE MARCHES : 1542-1689 93

in 1586, he directed that while his body should be laid to
rest in the Parish Church of Penshurst, his heart should
be interred at Ludlow " for the entire love he bare that
place." Within the castle grew up the two most won-
derful children of that wonderful age. Here lived in
closest affection Philip Sidney, the godson and name-
sake of the King of Spain, fighting against whom he
met with a hero's death at Zutphen, " a very parfit
gentil knight," the mirror of chivalry, " sublimely mild,
a spirit without spot " ; and his sister Mary Sidney,
" fair and wise and good," who as Countess of Pembroke
became the theme of every poet in England, and whose
death inspired Ben Jonson to write his immortal
epitaph :

Underneath this sable hearse
Lies the subject of all verse.
Sidney's sister, Pembroke's mother,
Death ! ere thou hast slain another,
Learn'd and fair and good as she,
Time shall throw a dart at thee.

A frequent visitor was Thomas Churchyard, who com-
menced to rhyme with Lord Surrey in the reign of
Henry VIII. and continued to write his doggerel verses
with unabated vigour in the early days of James the
First. One of the strangest and most incongruous
figures who ever lived at Ludlow Castle must have been
Richard Baxter, who afterwards became famous as a
dissenting divine and the most eloquent of English
preachers. The Chaplain of the Council was allowed to
eke out his stipend of £40 a year by taking in one pupil.
Young Baxter, then a youth with designs on the ministry
of the Church of England, came in 1632 to sit at the
feet of the Rev. Richard Wickstead, Chaplain to the

94 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

Council. 1 He remained at Ludlow for one year, being
left very much to himself by his reverend preceptor,
but having the free run of the excellent library. In his
memoirs, written over fifty years after, he recalled the
temptations of his youth. " About 17 years of age,"
he said, in his Reliquiae Baxterianae, 2 " being at Ludlow
Castle, where many idle gentlemen had little else to do,
I had a mind to learn to play at tables, the best gamester
in the house undertook to teach me." There were many
such " idle gentlemen " about the place, for " the house
was great, there being four judges, the King's attorney,
the clerk of the fines, with all their servants and all the
lord president's servants and many more ; and the town
was full of temptations through the multitude of persons
(counsellors, attorneys, officers and clerks) and much
given to tippling and excess." Here on Michaelmas Day,
1634, came a slender, comely young poet, with soft blue
eyes — whose brightness did not presage that the all too
beautiful youth would spend his old age " in the land
of darkness " — his shapely head crowned with a mass
of auburn hair, not yet out of his twenty-fifth year —
John Milton — to witness the first production on the
stage of the " Mask of Comus," " the finest production
of the kind which exists in any language." 3 The Pro-
logue must have been composed in the castle itself, in
which he describes how the great hall was thronged
with guests who had come to see how

A noble Peer of mickle trust and power

Has in his charge with tempered awe to guide

An old and haughty nation, proud in arms —

1 Sir Owen Edwards is in error (Wales, p. 328) when he describes
Baxter as Chaplain to the Council.

2 P. 241. 3 Macaulay's Essay on Milton.

COUNCIL OF THE MARCHES : 1542-1689 95

the finest and most exalted compliment ever paid to
the people of Wales. Samuel Butler, the satirist, spent
one year of his life in the castle as secretary and steward
to Lord Carbery, the first Restoration President. It is
even said that he wrote the first part of Hudibras
there, though he himself asserted that it was composed
in the time of the Commonwealth. 1 Here, too, in 1684
came the Duke of Beaufort, the most magnificent noble-
man of his age, to finish his princely " Progress," and
to give the last gorgeous feast in the historic banqueting
hall a few months before the Council was finally abolished,
and the scene of so much pomp and splendour, of so
much grace and poetry, of wisdom and wit, was left
derelict for ever, and " Ichabod " was written over the
portals.

Drain ac ysgall, mall a'u medd,
Mieri lie bu mawredd,
Y llwybrau gynt lie bu'r gan
Yn lleoedd y ddylluan.

The Presidency of the Council of Wales and the
Marches became the most dignified and ornamental
office in the gift of the Crown. This is the way in
which Sir Henry Sidney, who had three times filled the
post of Lord Deputy in Ireland, regarded it at the close
of his twenty-seven years of office : " Great that it is
that in some sort I govern the third part of this realm
under her most gracious majesty ; high it is for by that
I have precedence of great personages and by far my
betters ; happy it is for the goodness of the people whom
I govern ; and most happy it is for the commodity I
have, by the authority of that place, to do good every

1 Early in 1662 Hudibras appeared anonymously, entitled
' Hudibras : the first part written in the time of the late Wars."

96 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

day." The Lord-Lieutenancy of Ireland was a more
difficult and thankless post ; Ireland, then as since, was
the grave of English reputations. The President of
Wales kept almost regal state, and " for the goodness
of the people whom he governed " it was an office that
required no great expenditure of energy or display of
supreme administrative gifts. After the death of
Bishop Rowland Lee in 1543, the old tradition was
followed, and Sampson, his successor in the see of
Lichfield and Coventry, was appointed also to the
office of President of the Council. The Acts of the
Privy Council, the storehouse of our knowledge of
the affairs of the Council, contain few references to his
tenure of office. Towards the close of his administration,
however, there are ominous entries as to disputes about
tithes in 1546. 1 In the following year a complaint is
lodged against him that he was " partially affected " in
a certain case — probably affecting the rights of the
Church — which was revoked to the Privy Council. The
following year, after the accession of Edward VI., and
the Council had decided on pursuing a more definite
Protestant policy, the bishop was removed from the
presidency, and he was succeeded by Robert Dudley,
the newly-created Earl of Warwick, who was the first
layman to fill the post. His restless ambition, however,
was not content with an office which brought him little
accession of political power. He became more and more
involved in the intrigues of high politics, and in 1550 he
gave way to Sir William Herbert, afterwards first Earl
of Pembroke. In the following year, the Duke of
Somerset fell, and he was succeeded as the virtual
governor of England by Warwick, who was now created

1A.P.C. 531-547-

COUNCIL OF THE MARCHES : 1542-1689 97

Duke of Northumberland. In 1553 Edward VI. died,
and Dudley fell on the scaffold. Lord Pembroke, who
had been Northumberland's right-hand man, and was
privy to the conspiracy to place Lady Jane Grey on the
throne, judiciously left the sinking ship in time, and
became a prime favourite with Queen Mary. He was
described by foreign observers as the most powerful
subject in England, and he had little time to devote to
the administrative details of a provincial council. In
1553, therefore, he resigned the presidency, and Mary
reverted to the old tradition by appointing Heath, the
Bishop of Worcester, as his successor. Two years later,
on the death of Heath, Lord Pembroke was for the
second time appointed President. His multifarious
duties, however, disabled him from attending the Council
in person. During his second two years of office he
does not seem to have been in residence at Ludlow.
Abuses crept in ; unauthorised persons presumed to act
as attorneys of the court ; and when complaint was
made to the queen, Pembroke in August, 1558, offered
to resign. His offer was promptly accepted, and in the
following October Gilbert Bourne, the Bishop of Bath
and Wells, was appointed in his stead. But the life of
the sorrow-laden queen was drawing to a close. On
November 17th, 1558, Mary breathed her last, followed
a few hours later by Cardinal Pole. The reign of the
Pope in England was over, and the presidency of the
Popish Bishop of Bath and Wells expired with it.
Bishop Bourne was the last of the long line of ecclesi-
astical Presidents of Wales.

He was succeeded, in February, 1559, by Lord Williams
of Thame, a near kinsman of Richard Williams, alias
Cromwell, under whose aegis he had first entered public

W.M.W. G

98 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

life. Though he was treasurer of the Court of Augmen-
tations, which was anathema to all good Catholics, he
won Mary's favour by proclaiming her queen before the
failure of Northumberland's plot was assured. As
Sheriff of Oxfordshire he had brought Cranmer, Latimer,
and Ridley in custody to the place of their martyrdom ;
he had even, in that capacity, attended their execution.
But when the Princess Elizabeth was placed in his
custody at Woodstock, he treated her with such excep-
tional favour that he was removed from his post. The
Protestant queen, when she came to the throne, over-
looked his official actions as sheriff, and only remembered
his personal courtesy to the princess in distress. Though
ill and hardly able to move, he was appointed President
of the Council. He reached Ludlow in the summer, but
in October he breathed his last in the castle.

His successor was the most illustrious of all those who
had occupied the office of President. Sir Henry Sidney
continued to be President, in spite of the ebb and flow
of Court favour, till his death in 1586. It would have
been well for the fortunes of the Council and for the
welfare of the Principality if the gracious and benign
influence of the President had been at the sen-ice of
the Council without interruption for twenty-seven years.
But Sidney was too valuable a servant of the State to
be left in the backwaters of Ludlow. Three times he
filled the office of Lord Deputy of Ireland, without
however vacating the Presidency of Wales, viz. 1565-
1567, 1568-1571, and 1575-1579. In the intervals he
was not in constant residence at Ludlow. He had many
enemies at Court, and Elizabeth, with true Tudor in-
gratitude, too often lent her ear to his detractors.
Walsingham, whose daughter was afterwards married

COUNCIL OF THE MARCHES : 1542-1689 99

to Sir Philip Sidney, once wrote to him a word of warn-
ing. ' Your lordship had neade to walk warily," he
said, " for your doings are narrowly observed, and her
Majestie is apt to geve eare to any that shall yll you."
His greatest offence seems to have been his incurable
tolerance of " recusancy." At a time when Catholics
were hanged in England for Popery, and Puritans for
sedition, the record of the Council of Wales is com-
mendably clear of reproach in this direction, except
during the two years (1577-1579) when Whitgift, the
new Bishop cf Worcester, acted as Vice-President during
Sidney's absence in Ireland. There can be no doubt,
also, that the President's absence gave occasion for a
crop of abuses to grow. The " instructions " sent to
the Council by the Privy Council in 1574, 1576, 1577,
and 1586 show that excessive fees were levied, un-
necessary officials were appointed, an inordinate number
of attorneys' clerks attended, suitors were delayed owing
to the absence of counsellors, the place of meeting was
too uncertain, and there was a constant tendency to
encroach overmuch on the jurisdiction of the Common
Law Courts. Sir Henry Sidney strove hard to weed out
these and other abuses, and his efforts met with a large
measure of success. George Owen in his " Dialogue," a
few years after the close of Sidney's tenure of office,
described the Council as " the very place of refuge for
the poor oppressed of this country of Wales to fly unto.
And for this reason it is as greatly frequented with sutes
as any Court at Westminster whatsoever, the more that
it is the best cheape court in England for ffees and there
is great speed made in triall of all causes." The presi-
dency of Sir Henry Sidney was the golden age of the
Court of the Couneil of the Marches.

ioo THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

Sidney's successor and son-in-law, the second Lord Pem-
broke (1586-1602), was in indifferent health, and preferred
the scholarly leisure of life at Wilton Abbey to the dull
routine, varied by the ceremonial pomp, of official work
at Ludlow. Under him the Council began to lose repute,
and he was often engaged in somewhat acrimonious
controversy with the critics of his administration.

Lord Zouche of Harringworth, who held office from
1602-1607, was a man of ancient lineage and small
possessions. He had been a ward of Sir William Cecil
and a pupil of Whitgift. In 1586 he had acted as one
of the judges of Mary Queen of Scots. When in 1598
he was sent on an embassy to James VI. of Scotland,
he exceeded the powers entrusted to him, and acted so
superciliously that he gave umbrage to the king and
was recalled. It is little wonder that complaints were
made that he brought disgrace upon the office of Presi-
dent. What particular fault he committed is unknown,
but Chamberlain gives a hint in a letter which is pre-
served in the State Papers. " Lord Zouche," he said,
" plays rex in Wales with both Council and justices and
with the poor Welshmen." x He was removed from his
office in 1607. 2 He survived till 1625, and was buried

1 S.P.D., Ehz., vol. cclxxxv. (Col. 1601-3, p. 249) : " On one
occasion he threw down the cushion, laid according to usage
beside his own for the Chief Justice of Chester, with the words
that ' one was enough for that place.' " Harl. MSS. 5353
(Manningham's Diary, Camden Society, p. 58). It was during
his term of office that the controversy as to the Council's juris-
diction over the four border counties arose. It lasted many
years, it engaged the attention of Coke on the one side and
Bacon on the other, King James took a keen personal interest
in it as he believed the royal prerogative was involved, and
it laid the foundation for the hostility of the popular party to
the Council, which ultimately ended in its destruction.

2 It is stated in the Diet, of Nat. Biography that Lord Zouche
held office till 161 5, but this is incorrect.

COUNCIL OF THE MARCHES : 1542-1689 101

in the family vault at Hackney. The vault communi-
cated with his wine cellar, and this gave occasion to
" rare old Ben's " famous distich :

Wherever I die, oh here may I lie,
Along my good Lord Zouche,
That when I am dry, to the tap I may hie,
And so back again to my couch.

Lord Eure's administration lasted from 1607 to 1616,
during which the miserable controversy about the
Council's jurisdiction over the four border English
counties was bitterly pursued. He was followed for a
short time by Lord Gerard (1616-7), and afterwards
by the Earl of Northampton (1617-1631). Lord Bridg-
water (1631-1641), who made his formal entry into
Ludlow in September, 1634, endeavoured by lavish enter-
tainments and splendid pomp and ceremony to revive
the ancient prestige of the Council. The membership of
the Council was increased to 84, including 24 peers, 11
bishops, and several justices. It was too late. When
the Long Parliament met, it appointed on December
23rd, 1640, a special committee, under the chairmanship
of Hyde (afterwards Lord Clarendon), to consider the
jurisdiction of the Council of the Marches. All the
Welsh members and all the lawyers in the House were
upon it. On July 5th, 1641, an Act was passed abolishing
the Star Chamber, and the like jurisdiction vested in the
Council of the Marches. Though this left the civil juris-
diction of the Council untouched, it remained in abeyance
until the Restoration.

The Council was revived as far as its civil jurisdiction
was concerned at the Restoration, and another Welsh-
man, Richard Vaughan, Earl of Carbery, who had given
refuge to Jeremy Taylor at Golden Grove, during the

102 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

Commonwealth, was appointed President (1661-1672).
Carbery seems to have been a grasping and avaricious
man. He was charged with malversation. Ultimately
he was removed from his office for maltreating his
servants and tenants at Dryslwyn, near Golden Grove,
" some of whom had their eares cut of and one his
tongue out and all dispossessed." *

He was succeeded by the Marquis of Worcester, after-
wards first Duke of Beaufort. His ancestor had married
the daughter and heiress of the second Earl of Pembroke
of the first creation (afterwards Earl of Huntingdon),
and his son had succeeded to the vast possessions of the
Herberts in South Wales and Monmouthshire. He was
the wealthiest subject in the realm, and he lived in
almost regal pomp and ostentation. He made a pro-
gress through Wales, and the record of it, written by his
secretary, Thomas Dingley, is a valuable addition to
our knowledge of the state of the Principality at the end
of the seventeenth century. The great banquet which
he gave in the hall of Ludlow Castle has already been
mentioned. After the Revolution, the Earl of Maccles-
field was appointed President in 1689, but the Act
abolishing the Council was passed early in that year,
and the last President does not seem to have had time,
before its extinction, to attend the Court of the Marches
at Ludlow.

The Council of the Marches had two separate and
distinct functions to perform. On the one side it was
a law court, set up by section 113 of the Act of 1542,
whose practice and procedure will be considered more
in detail in the next chapter. On the other hand it was
an administrative council, which had received statutory
1 Halton Correspondence, i. 76.

COUNCIL OF THE MARCHES : 1542-1689 103

recognition by section 4 of the 1542 Act, and which was
bound to carry out any royal command, conveyed to it
through the Privy Council or Star Chamber. In spite
of the fact that Sir Henry Sidney turned Mortimer's
Tower into a muniment room and took care, as in
Dublin so in Ludlow, to ensure the safe custody of
archives, most of the records of the Council have been
irretrievably lost. 1 " The most complete extant record
of a suit before the Council appears to be that respecting
the town tolls of Shrewsbury in 1598-9." 2 The only
information we have as to the Council's administrative
work is derived from the Acts of the Privy Council,
the Register the MS. of which is in the Bodleian Library,
and certain correspondence preserved in the Bridgewater
papers. From these it is clear that the Council was
subordinate to the Privy Council. In smaller matters
it acted on its own authority, though even in these cases
it was liable to be supervised and overruled by the
more august body. The Secretary of State was given
the special duty of supervising the Welsh Council. 3 As
has been mentioned, it was customary for the Privy
Council periodically to issue " instructions " to the
inferior body. Cases were remitted to it for enquiry.
Sometimes it would be allowed to deal summarily with

1 Flenley's " Register " (publ. Cymmrodorion Record Series,
191 5), a reprint of Bodley MS. No. 904, is a record of the pro-
ceedings of the Council between the years 1569 and 1591, with
a few entries of earlier and later date. For the " entry books
of cases heard before the Council," which are purely legal records,
see Skeel, pp. viii. 151 seq. Flenley is of opinion that one
volume of the Dovaston MSS. seems to be a successor of the
" Register " edited by him.

2 Skeel, pp. 228-234, where a full and interesting account of the
case is given, taken from Shrewsbury MSS. No. 2621.

3 S.P.D., Eliz., cclxxiv. 118.

104 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

the offenders ; at other times it was ordered to send up
the offenders, after a preliminary investigation, to the
Privy Council for trial. 1 At the same time, the Privy
Council was careful to safeguard in every way the
dignity of the Council of the Marches. Occasionally it
might criticise and even censure its conduct ; but it
would allow no one else to show it any disrespect. It
was invested with similar powers to the Privy Council.
It received its instructions direct from the sovereign ; it
was responsible to no one else for its administrative acts.
The " instructions " issued in 1574, 2 on the eve of Sir
Henry Sidney's departure for Ireland, are of importance,
as they served as a model for later issues. It is a source
of constant complaint on the part of the Privy Council
that the instructions were not properly observed. The
Council was to hear and determine all manner of " ex-
tortions, maintenance, imbraceries, oppressions, con-
spiracies, escapes, corruptions, falsehoods, and all other
evil doings, defaults and misdemeanours of all sheriffs,
justices of the peace, mayors, bailiffs, stewards, lieu-
tenants, escheators, coroners, gaolers, clerks, and other
officers and ministers of justice " within the limits of
their commission, and, if necessary, punish them with
fine or imprisonment. In a word, the Council was to
supervise the actions of the officials in Wales and the
Marches, and the work of administration generally. It
could issue proclamations at any time it thought fit
" for the better order and quietness of her Majesty's
subjects and the repressing of malefactors and misdoers."
It could compound for all forfeitures arising from breach

1 A.P.C. x. 432, xi. 67.

2 Lansdowne MSS. 155, 222b-49b.

COUNCIL OF THE MARCHES : 1542-1689 105

of penal statutes and assess fines for any offence of
which persons were convicted before it. It had the duty
cast upon it of examining into charges of perjury com-
mitted by jurors committed within its jurisdiction. It
could " by all their pollicies, ways and means . . . put
its good and effectual endeavours to repress all manner
of murders, felons, burglaries, rapes, riots, routes, un-
lawful assemblies, unlawful retainers, regrators, fore-
stallers, extortioners, conspiracies, maintenances, per-
juries of what kind soever they be." In one horrid
particular it was invested with a power from which
English Common Law Courts have always been gloriously
free. Persons accused or suspected of treason or felony
might, at the Council's discretion, be put to the torture
Another Star Chamber x characteristic was the extensive
power to deal with " seditious tales." If the tales ex-
tended to treason, the death penalty could be enforced ,
if of less moment, yet of harmful effect, the offenders
were to be punished " by the pillory, cutting of the ears,
whipping and otherwise by their discretions." It was
specially instructed to safeguard the commons against
the encroachments of the lords of the manors and others,
' as the people be not oppressed or lack habitation, but
that they may live after their sortes and qualities."

The Lord President was nearly always the Lord-
Lieutenant of the twelve counties of Wales, as well as
of the four border counties, and sometimes of Warwick-
shire as well. 2 The Lord-Lieutenant was the peculiar

1 " They resemble much in authority the high and hon 1 ' 1 ' Court
of Star Chamber at Westm." (Geo. Owen's " Dialogue " in Owen's
Pembroke, vol. ii. 22-3.

2 Miss Skeel (p. 252) says that ' the number of counties varied
considerably — e.g. in 161 3 Lord Eure was Lord Lieutenant of

io6 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

creation of Tudor administration, who was specially
entrusted with providing for the defence of the counties,
for the levying of troops, and for the nomination of and
supervision over the Justices of the Peace. As early as
1552 Lord Pembroke as President of the Council was
appointed Commissioner for the Lord- Lieut enantship of
Wales. There are innumerable instances where the
President is directed by the Privy Council to levy troops
for Ireland, to make provision for the defence of the
realm against the invasion of the Spanish Armada, 1 to
enforce the cultivation of the use of the long-bow, to
supply grain, to settle industrial disputes, to enforce
statutes dealing with the cloth manufacture, to fortify
Milford Haven against Moorish or Turkish pirates, and
to collect ship-money. 2 The Privy Council delegated all
such matters of administration and government to the
President, who was in closer touch with the remote
districts of Wales and the Marches. To the modern
student one of the strangest incidents that comes to
light in the relations of the Council with the superior
authority in London is the prevalence of piracy on the
coasts of Wales. It was a part of Elizabeth's policy to

nine Welsh counties, of Worcestershire, Shropshire, and Hereford-
shire, while the Earl of Worcester was Lord-Lieutenant of
Monmouthshire and Glamorganshire. The Earl of Northampton
was usually Lord -Lieutenant of Wales (eleven counties, Gla-
morganshire going as before with Monmouthshire) and of the
four border counties, Warwickshire being sometimes added as
in 1624. In 1629, however, he was Lord -Lieutenant of eighteen
counties. In 1640 the Earl of Bridgwater was Lord-Lieutenant
of the twelve Welsh counties and of the four border counties."

1 A.P.C. xv. 255, xvii. 328.

2 Skeel, p. 156. An admirable summary of the administrative
duties of the Council, based on the records found in the " Register,"
is given by Flenley, Introduction, pp. 5-46.

COUNCIL OF THE MARCHES : 1542-1689 107

encourage privateering both against Spain and against
France. She knew that she would have to depend on
British seamen to guard her shores from foreign aggress-
ion. By turning a blind eye to the sea-adventurers,
she thought she could, at no cost to the Treasury, and
with some profit to herself and her subjects, maintain
a strong force at sea. But such a policy had its dis-
advantages. If the Government connived at the doubt-
ful actions of the Drakes and Horseys, it was inevitable
that the people would not discriminate too nicely between
the freebooters of the sea. One of the first instructions
that were issued to Bishop Sampson in 1546 was that
he must do his utmost to repress piracy. 1 In 1565 a
' pyrat " was directed to be sent up to London in safe
custody, and a Scotch pirate in 1566 was ordered to be
delivered into the hands of the officers of the Admiralty. 2
Froude remarks that in the years 1576-9 there was a
recrudescence of the evil of piracy in home waters, and
the records of the Council show that the Bristol Channel
was not immune from the pest. In 1576 it is com-
plained that certain merchants of Haverfordwest were
taken and robbed by one Phipson, an English pirate,
and that the cargo was sold in various towns on the
Welsh coast. But Haverfordwest, though it complained
when its own merchants were despoiled, had no rooted
hostility to piracy as such. In 1577 the Privy Council
apprise the President of Wales of the fact that one John

1 A.P.C. vol. i. 415.

2 Clark's Curiae de Gamorgan, ii. No. 471. " Griffith, a Welsh
pirate, is taken at Cork, and his lands, worth £500 a year, some
say, are given to Lord Grey (Cal. S.P. Dom., 28th Feb., 1603)."
Query, was this Piers Griffith, son of Sir Rees Griffith of Penrhyn
said by Pennant to have fought against the Armada ? (Tour>
ii. 285.)

108 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

Callice, " a notable pirate," was " lodged and housed "
in Haverfordwest as an honoured guest. He put out
to sea, seized a French vessel laden with wine, landed
at Milford Haven, and disposed of the loot with im-
punity. In the same year a richly-laden Bristol vessel
was wrecked. Her cargo was taken by the inhabitants
of the sea-coast of Somerset and South Wales. The
Acts of the Privy Council refer to numberless instances
of persons from South Wales being examined on a charge
of dealing with pirates. In 1577 Sir John Perrott,
Fabian Phillips (a member of the Council), and the
Mayor of Cardiff were appointed Commissioners to
examine into matters of piracy in that town. About
the same time pirates " armed with swords and calivers "
landed at Penarth, though their depredations do not
seem to have been very serious, their spoil only con-
sisting of " a wether and three copple of conies." The
last record relating to piracy occurred in 1632. The
deputy-lieutenants of Carnarvonshire sent in hot haste
to Lord Bridgwater for instructions what to do ; because
" certaine pirates came into a haven of that County and
threatened to land," in which case the deputy-lieu
tenants " not knowing what course to take, desired to
be instructed therein." The Council, " much marveyling
they should make so strange a demande in a matter
wherein their own judgments might sufficiently inform
them," gave the sensible advice that they should prevent
the pirates from landing, or if they did, to arrest and
imprison them. 1

It has already been remarked how honourably averse

1 Council Register, July 20th, 1632. For directions from the
Privy Council to suppress piracy from 1569 downwards, see
also Flenley's " Register."

COUNCIL OF THE MARCHES : 1542-1689 109

the Council of the Marches was to religious persecution.
It is true that in 1578 the Council sent up a complaint
to the Privy Council that offenders in religion were not
adequately checked. But that was done when Sir Henry
Sidney was acting as Lord Deputy in Ireland, and when
Whitgift, the lately appointed Bishop of Worcester, who
afterwards as Archbishop of Canterbury condemned John
Penry for his share in writing and publishing the "Martin
Marprelate Tracts," was acting as Vice-President. As a
rule the Privy Council complain of the " slackness " of
the Welsh Council in proceeding against the recusants.
In 1590 Lord Pembroke complained that much sym-
pathy was shown by the members of the Council them-
selves towards the recusants. Some of them, he said,
are " coldlie affected in religion," and he asked that
persons " of good disposicion in religion " may be added
to their number. 1 It was in connection with this " slack-
ness " that Walsingham wrote the friendly letter of
warning in 1582 already referred to, in which he en-
joined Sir Henry Sidney to " walk warily." It was no
wonder that the Council hesitated about putting into
force the Recusancy Acts, especially the stringent ones
of 1585 and 1593. The whole of Wales was intensely
Catholic, and the border counties were probably the
most Catholic parts of England. During the two years
of Whitgift's vice-presidency active steps were taken
to put down the adherents of the old faith. 2 In one
case, Whitgift and the Bishops of Bangor and St. Asaph
were appointed special commissioners to inquire into the
case of one John Edwards of Chirk, who had been guilty
of the heinous offence of allowing Mass to be said in

1 Lansdownc MSS. 63, f. 1S7 ; cf. 159, f. 50.

2 Strype's Whitgift, pp. 164-180.

no THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

his house. The Privy Council specially empowered the
right reverend prelates to inflict torture " whereby the
very truth of such reconciliations to the Pope, lewd
practices and assemblies, might be bolted out and known,
which they were informed to have been very many in
that country." This amiable intention, however, was
frustrated by the serene courage of John Edwards and
his friend Morice. Thumbscrews and the rack had no
terrors for them. They remained silent under the ex-
amination of the pinchbeck Torquemadas, and were
duly cast into prison. Justices of the Peace were
reluctant to interfere with the priests of the popular
religion, and left the nasty work to the Judges of Assize.
The judges in their turn found themselves too busy to
deal with recusants, and so, at Whitgift's request, the
Justices of Assize were inhibited from dealing with such
cases. 1 An ecclesiastical commission was set up, one of
whose first acts was the examination of John Edwards
of Chirk. Fabian Phillips, a member of the Council of
the Marches, was appointed with a roving commission
to smell out " offenders in religion." 2 Gerard, who
evidently was not enamoured of this part of the Council's
duty, caustically describes Phillips as " a yonge man,
an utter barrister of small experience at the barre or
benche, of noe knowen lyvinge saving a bailiwick or
stuardshipe." 3 But the needy barrister evidently did
his work to the satisfaction of Whitgift, who said of
him, " For my own part I know not anything whereupon
he can be justly charged, unless it be because he is stout
and upright in judgment and not appliable to satisfy
other men's affections and pleasures, as peradventure

1 A.P.C. ii. 51 (Editor's note).

2 A.P.C. ii. pp. 29, 97, 190 3 A.P.C. xiii. 427-8.

COUNCIL OF THE MARCHES : 1542-1689 in

it is looked for. Truly, my lord, I find him one and
the same man ; but I see how hard it is for such to
follow the rules of equity and justice without respect
to please all men ; and I would to God it were not
altogether contrary." No sooner, however, had Sir
Henry Sidney returned, than the old complaint of
" slackness " was revived. In 1580 the Privy Council
ordered that another ecclesiastical commission should
be set up, and the President is warned that the queen
is offended because nothing had been done for a whole
year. Two years later complaints are made that re-
cusancy is on the increase. Justices of the Peace,
sheriffs, and jurors are alleged to be slack in appre-
hending and punishing recusants, and the President is
urged to choose as justices men " who most favoured
religion." x In the " instructions " sent to Lord Pem-
broke, on his entering upon his office in 1586, 2 Art. 43
mentions " all the actes in sorte ordeyned for unyfor-
mitie of common prayer, divine service, and for causing
all persons to resorte to churches to divine service so as
at the hearing and determyning thereof some of the
Bishopps of that Counsaill for the better performance
and due execucion of the said lawes and Statutes as
apperteigneth." In 1592, again, the Privy Council had
to press the President to hold an inquiry for Jesuits,
seminary priests, and other " such lewde and suspected
persons as do lurke in those remote places." 3 The
common people in Carmarthenshire 4 and Pembrokeshire

1 Lansdowne MSS. 51, ff. 103-14.

2 Lansdowne MSS. 51, ff. 103 14.

3 A.P.C. 22, pp. 543-5.

1 How hard Catholicism died in Carmarthenshire may be
gathered from the fact that as late as 1 700 a priest was prosecuted

©-5

ii2 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

were said still to resort by night to places where in times
gone by there had been images or offerings. To check
this practice it was ordered that " superstitious and
idolatrous " monuments were to be pulled down and
defaced in both counties. A few years earlier (1588) a
priest who was being sent to London by the Council for
trial from Monmouth gaol was forcibly rescued. 1 In
the following year, in the " Articles to be considered for
the government of Wales," the Privy Council are still
perturbed by the prevalence of Catholicism in Wales.
One of the Articles related that " recusantes do swarme,
no man but theire owne companies doe know where
they were married, by whome or in what place, where
theire children were christened, (where) theire children
be learned and bred by scholemasters of theire own
creed, nor who be theire godfathers and godmothers." 2
As late as 1609 the Privy Council are assured that
recusancy is still prevalent in the Marches and South
Wales. 3 In the later years of Lord Bridgwater's presi-
dency, Puritanism became active in the Marches. Walter

at the Great Sessions at Carmarthen for saying Mass at Llandilo.
In a book of precedents of pleading in the writer's possession the
indictment is set forth as follows :

Carmarthen. The jurors present that Samuel Davies of
Llandilo vawr Chen gent after 17th Nov., 1699, viz : in April 7 . . .
at the parish of Llandilo vant (van) now and formerly a popish
priest said mass in the mansion of John Morgan of Llandilo
vawr and administered the sacrament to a certain Mary Lloyd
and Mary Price according to the Roman use, against the statute,
etc.

1 A.P.C. i6, p. 95-

2 Dr. Griffith Roberts, in his introduction to the Drych Cristiono-
gawl (Milan, 1585), complains, however, that in many districts
in Wales the people live " like animals," knowing nothing of
Christianity, but only holding in memory the name of Christ.

3 S.P.D. Jas. L, xxviii. 122 ; lxviii. 75.

COUNCIL OF THE MARCHES : 1542-1689 113

Wroth in 1639 started the first Independent cause at
Llanvaches in Monmouthshire. Walter Cradock carried
his fiery message from Cardiff to Wrexham, converting
Vavasour Powell in Radnorshire and Morgan Llwyd o
Wynedd in Denbighshire. After his hegira from Wrex-
ham, he remained for months with the Harleys at
Llanfair Waterdine in Shropshire, where the saints
thronged to him for counsel and instruction. But there
is no record that the Council of the Marches interfered
with Puritan activity. It was as tolerant of the new as
it had always been of the old faith.

By the Act of 1542 x the Council was given a general
concurrent jurisdiction with the Court of Great Sessions,
and an appellate jurisdiction in personal actions. It
was not the intention of the framers of the Act that the
Council of the Marches should in any way compete with
the common law jurisdiction of the Great Sessions.
There is no doubt that the bulk of the equity work from
Wales was transacted at Ludlow. As will be shown
later on, the Court of Great Sessions was not specifically
invested with an equitable jurisdiction. It occasionally,
and in a few limited instances, acted as a Court of
Chancery because it could not help itself. But it had
neither the desire nor the machinery for transacting
ordinary equity business. The Council of the Marches,
as long as it existed, was in reality the Chancery Court
of Wales. At first sight it seems inconsistent that the
Council should have both an original and an appellate
jurisdiction in personal actions, and inexplicable why it

1 Ss. 4 and 113. "The authority and jurisdiction of the
Counsell are not certainly known, for they are to judge and
determine of such matters as the Queen shall authorise them
from time to time by way of Instructions " (George Owen's
" Dialogue," Owen's Pembroke, vol. ii. 22).
w.m.w. H

ii4 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

should have a concurrent original jurisdiction in personal
and mixed actions, but the intention of the framers of
the Act of 1542 becomes quite clear in the light of the
" instructions " which were from time to time issued by
the Privy Council to the March tribunal. The clearest
exposition of the real meaning of this seeming anomaly
is to be found in the " instructions " of 1574. The
original jurisdiction, civil and criminal, vested in the
Council, is only to be exercised when moved " by any
poor persons, that shall manifestly appear not to be
able to sue or defend after the course of the common
law, or by any person like to be oppressed by mainten-
ance, riches, strength, power, decree or affinity of the
parties adversaries." But a caveat was entered against
the multiplication of 'such suits, especially for title of
lands, unless absolutely required. As far as possible,
they were to be referred to the common law.

The Act of 1542 introduced the English land law and
the law of primogeniture (instead of gavelkind) into
Wales. 1 It was inevitable that such a revolution
would cause a great disturbance in the relations between
the occupier and the person who now became by opera-
tion of law the owner of the land. It is no wonder,
therefore, that there should have been much litigation
as to the title of land in the courts. Nor is it strange
that the poor occupier should fear to submit his title to
the arbitrament of a local court where it might be both
judge and jury were amenable to the influence or pressure
of the lord of the manor. Disputes between the copy-

1 For the survival of Welsh land tenure in certain localities,
see Owen's Pembrokeshire, vol. i. 61 n. and vol. iii. p. 146 n.
For an account of the transition under Elizabeth from the
Welsh tribal custom to the English land system, see Rhys and
Jones, The Welsh People, p. 407 seq., written by Seebohm.

COUNCIL OF THE MARCHES : 1542-1689 115

holder and the lord were, therefore, frequently tried by
the Council of the Marches rather than by the Court of
Great Sessions, and, as has been mentioned, special
instructions were issued to the Council to put a stop to
the encroachments of lords of the manor on the commons.
The intention of the promoters of the Act of 1542 in
vesting this jurisdiction in the Council was both reason-
able and salutary. But their intention was frustrated
by the natural tendency of all courts of law in those days
to encroach upon the domain of other courts. As the
number of poor and oppressed suitors of the Council
increased, the number of counsel and attorneys and
clerks in attendance increased as well. It was to the
interest of these parasites to augment the number of
causes, and it soon became a matter of complaint that
the Council attracted to itself actions that ought more
properly to be tried in the counties where they arose.
In 1574 it became necessary for the Privy Council to
warn the Council of the Marches that suits as to the title
to lands should, as far as possible, be left to the common
law.

William Gerard, who had been a member of the
Council since 1560, and Vice-President since 1562, was
appointed in April, 1576, to the great delight of the
Lord Deputy, Sir Henry Sidney, Lord Chancellor of
Ireland. He retained, however, his office of Chief
Justice of Chester, which enabled him still to attend the
meetings of the Council. The affairs of Wales were
engaging the serious attention of the Government.
David Lewis, Principal of the newly-founded Jesus
College, Oxford, and Judge of the Admiralty Court,
was asked to report on the state of the Principality.
Probably Gerard was also asked, before departing for

n6 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

Ireland, to give his views as to the position and prospects
of the Council with which he had been so long connected.
At all events, in 1576, he made a valuable and interesting
report which he called a " Discourse " to the Council.
He was not over-complimentary either to the institu-
tion itself or to its members. He is a laudator temfioris
acti, and contrasts the feebleness of the present officials
with the strength and vigour of Bishop Rowland Lee
and Mr. Justice Englefield. " At this day, to be plaine,"
he says, " the Counsell and Courte are neyther rever-
enced, feared, or theire proceedings esteemed. There
is not, neyther hathe bene, sithens the Queen's raigne
anie of the Counsell appointed to continuall attendaunce
of suche profounde judgement as the place requireth
or that maie be termed profounde, learned, comparable
with the meaneste of those that have served as Justice
sithens Englefelde. And as the knowledge hereof
hathe bredd, the Counsellors at the barre by contemp-
tuouse carpinge overmuch to deforce contempn and
discountenance the benche, soe the clientes takinge
holde of theire disorders and persuaded that everie order
which passethe against them is eyther throughe ignor-
ance or wilfullness of the Counsell and soe doe departe
wythe repyninge and murmuringe speeches." He goes
on to say that the members of the Council are too
numerous, 1 for the most part unfit, and have their private

1 Miss Skeel {Council of the Marches, Appx. Hi. pp. 288-9)
gives a list of the officials during the second half of the sixteenth
century. They were the Lord President, Vice-President, Chief
Justice of Chester, Secretary, Clerk of the Council (who was
also Clerk of the Signet and Register), Clerk Examiner (who left
his work to be done by young " Clerks allowed "), Her Majesty's
Attorney of the Marches, Her Majesty's Solicitor, Clerk Receiver
of the Fines, Porter, Sergeant-at-Arms, Remembrancer, " and
the holder of a new and easy post called Hankie's office, who

COUNCIL OF THE MARCHES : 1542-1689 117

ends to serve rather than the good of the country. The
conclusion he draws is :

' It is moste true that the bodie of the comunaltie
of Wales are pore and theire estate to be lamented of
everie pitifull and carefull magistrate, for he that woulde
but marke the pore simple creatures (I call Gode to witnes
with greeff and pitie of theire smarte I speak yt), whoe
come and goe to and from that Courts in the yere, and
the small causes which they travell for when theye come
to hearinge, meeter for a meane under-stuarde at a
Leete or lawe daie to be decised, then for a Counsell
settled for government to be occupied withall, would
saie to himself, you pore walshe creatures, yt is not you,
but those appointed to govern you whoe be the causes
of your beggarie : th' establishment is to devise for
your wealthe that which your malicious and wilfull
disposicions cannot procure to yourselfs."

He concludes with some pungent descriptions of the
Members of the Court. The Vice-President x (Sir
Andrew Corbet) was " a verie sicklie man not able to
take the toyle of that service." Doctor Ellis (i.e. the
celebrated Ellis Price, LL.D., "y doctor coch ") "of
XII or XIII yeres countenance, a good mountaigne

took fourpence a time for writing his name on certain bills."
The Counsellors at the Bar were by the Instructions of 1586
limited to eight, and the Attorneys to eighteen, attended by
eighteen clerks : " but there was a tendency for these numbers
to be increased in spite of prohibitions." There were also the
Steward, the Marshal, the two Pursuivants, the Chaplain, the
Armourer, the Keeper of the Castle, the Keeper of the Leads
of the Conduit, and the Keeper of the Clock (Lans. MSS. 51, ff.
103-14; 28, ff. 124-5; in, f. 16; Ashmolean MSS. 824, xxii.).
See also Flenley's " Register," p. 21.

1 See A.P.C. ix. 66. This shows that the Discourse was
written after Gerard had ceased to be the Vice-President.

n8 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

doctor and seldom called to attendaunce there." *
Powell of Oswaldstree (Oswestry) was a new member.
He was " well seene in Welsh stories, in that service
sitteth like a Zipher." Jerome Corbett was " a yonge
man, an utter barrister in Court, but soe slowe of dis-
patche as not meete for that Court." Fabian Phillips's
description has already been given. He finishes up by
a very sensible suggestion that one of the Justices of
Assize should understand Welsh, " for nowe the Justice
of Assize must use some interpreter. And therefore many
tymes the evidence is tolde accordyng to the mynde of
the interpretor, whereby the evidence is expounded
contrarie to that which is saide by the examynate, and
soe the judge gyveth a wronge charge," — an observation
which explains much of the misunderstandings that have
occurred between English judges and Welsh jurors and
witnesses.

He gives an interesting account of the law terms, and
the number of cases tried, which affords a useful standard
of comparison with the state of business in Lord Bridg-
water's time. He states that — " there are now four
termes in the yere, and in every terme, two or three

1 This somewhat disparaging estimate of Ellis Prys as a
" mountain doctor " differs widely from the view taken of his
position by his Welsh contemporaries. William Llyn (Morice's
edition, pp. u and 48) wrote two poems in his praise, in the
latter of which he describes him as

Adail tir Kymry ydwyd
A Haw gref ynhir Lloegr wyd
Pann ddeloch penn y ddwywlad
Fr cwrt lie mae euro Kad
Pob iarll hen pawb eraill is
A wyr alw Doctor Elis.

J. C. Morice is wrong in stating that " Doctor Ellis was a noted
Court Physician," p. 297. The allusion is to his membership of
the Ludlow Court.

COUNCIL OF THE MARCHES : 1542-1689 119

hundred matters appointed to be harde . . . and accept-
inge like nomber to every of the foure termes in the yere,
and like expenses in every matter, three or four thousand
poundes wil be gathered at the leste to be expended by
yere . . . There are foure moneths in the yere expended
in terme tymes and thother eighte moneths in vacac'on,
one weeke with another throughowte the yere, there
passeth an hundred or two hundred proces, and in
everie terme there are ended in afternoone Rules one
with another by Commission to frendes (i.e. arbitration),
by wager of lawe, and by dismission upon thanns were
200 matters . . . From sixe of the clock in the morninge
until sixe o'clock in the evening (allowing them a dinner
tyme) before noone and after, the Counsaill sit in
Cortte." x

Miss Skeel, 2 who has gone through the entry books
between the years 1632 and 1642, which are preserved
among the Bridgwater Papers, states that " the Hilary
Term began, as a rule, in the second week of January,
and ended at some time in the last week. Lent Term
began in the last week in February or the first of March,
and lasted a fortnight. The length of Trinity Term
varied a good deal : once it began as early as June 15th,
1636, and once as late as July 17th, 1635. It was dis-
tinctly the longest and busiest term, as might be ex-
pected ; sometimes the sitting went on into August,
e.g. in Trinity Term, 1635 (July 17th to August 8th).
Michaelmas Term began in the first week of November,
or sometimes in the second, and lasted for a fortnight

1 S.P. Dom., Eliz., vol. cvii. No. 21 ; cf. the account given by
George Owen in his " Dialogue " (Owen's Pembrokeshire, vol. ii.

P- 23).

2 Skeel Council of the Marches, p. 152.

120 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

or three weeks, sometimes longer, as in 1639 (November
6th to December 3rd). The average thus would seem to
be a fortnight for the Hilary and Lent Terms, three
weeks or more for the Trinity Term, and a fortnight or
three weeks for the Michaelmas Term."

The returns are incomplete for most of the years, but
the returns for 1638 show that the number of causes
entered was 1525 and the amount of fines came to
£3,971 6s. 8d., and for 1639, 1539 with £4.229 13s. 4d.
fines. This would seem to show that the popularity of
the Court, on the whole, had stood the test of time. 1

Gerard's Discourse seems to have had an imme-
diate effect. In 1576 the Privy Council issued further
" instructions." It was ordered that no suits in the
nature of " replevin, debt without specialty, detinue,
action upon the case, or account " should be received
by the Council unless the Bill were signed by two of the
Council at the least. " Also, if complaint be made of
trespass or wrongful entering or disturbing of the free-
hold, or of the possession of any farmer for years or at
will, within any of the twelve shires of Wales . . . and
surmise he is not of ability to try the common law in
the County where the wrong was committed and there-
fore of inequality prayeth to be heard of that Court, no
process to be graunted upon any such Bill, except the
complaint be first exhibited to the Justices of Assize

1 Miss Skeel, however, makes a somewhat conjectural com-
parison between the number of cases entered in 1609 and 1633,
and concludes " that the average number of suits from all Counties
in 1633 to 1640 was less than half that from the four (border)
Counties only in 1609-10, which shows how rapidly the Court
had declined, in spite of all the efforts made to strengthen it."
But the basis of comparison between the years is faulty, and
Miss Skeel has overlooked Gerard's estimate in 1575. when
according to him, the number of suits was excessive.

COUNCIL OF THE MARCHES : 1542-1689 121

within that County, where the cause of such suit ariseth,
and he, by letters and other note of allowance, recom-
mend the hearing of the same for that cause to this
Council." In the next place, no title of copyhold was
to be heard except against the lord, without manifest
testimony that the complaint could not have impartial
trial in the lord's Court. Furthermore, no process was
to be granted for the appearance of any before the
Council unless the value thereof exceeded 40s. Whitgift,
the energetic new Bishop of Worcester, was appointed
Vice-President in the place of the sickly Sir Andrew
Corbett, a post which he filled for two and a half years
until the return of Sir Henry Sidney from Ireland.

Even in those early times the Council had its enemies
and detractors. Gerard bore witness to the little esteem
in which it was held at the conclusion of his term of
service. George Owen, writing in 1593, states that the
queen had been moved to abolish the Council, and that
Bills had even been introduced in Parliament to that
effect. 1 The chief causes of complaints were the old
ones against which the Instructions of 1574, 1576, and
1586 had been levelled. The causes tried were " trifling, "
and the costs recovered by the winning party in a suit
were so small and inadequate that a defendant, even
when he had a good defence to the claim, felt that it
was prudent to compromise rather than lose money by
winning the action. In spite of all efforts to keep down
the number of attorneys, there were twenty-four practis-
ing at the Council, instead of twelve as enjoined by the
Instructions of 1574 and eighteen by the Instructions of
1586, " besides divers Attornies Peers (i.e. companions)
which they call clerkes admitted, who in the absence of

1 George Owen's " Dialogue, ' Owen's Pembr. vol. ii. p. 24.

122 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

the Attornies, have an Attornie's place and authoritie."
George Owen indignantly contrasts this inordinate
number with the two or three attorneys admitted in the
Star Chamber and the six attorneys in the Court of
Chancery at Westminster. 1 He also complains of the
number of unnecessary processes at the Court. 2 In
spite of these defects, which he considered might be
easily remedied, he thought highly of the Council of the
Marches, and did not subscribe to the view of its enemies
that it should be abolished. " Better it were that those
defects were reformed, than like an evill Phisition, for
that some parte is grieved, to kill the whole body." 3
Even as it was, Owen was of opinion that it had not only
been of inestimable benefit in the pacification of Wales,
but that it rendered useful service still. " Generallie,"
he said, "it is the very place of refuge for the poore
oppressed of this country of Wales to flie unto. And
for this cause it is as greatly frequented with sutes as
any one Court at Westm. Whatsoever, the more that it
is the best Cheape Court in England for ffees and there
is great speed made in triall of all causes." 4

But though the Council had its enemies in Wales, the
first effective blow at its jurisdiction came from the
border counties. From its inception, it met with
hostility from the English shires. Early in the reign
of Elizabeth, Bristol, the chief city in the county of
Gloucester, was exempted from its jurisdiction. 5 A few
years later, in 1569, Cheshire, as a one-time Palatine
County, was declared not to be subject to it. In 1574
Worcester petitioned to be placed in the same category,

1 George Owen's " Dialogue," Owen's Pembr. vol. ii. p. 25.
3 Ibid, p 40. 3 Ibid, p 25. * Ibid. p. 23.

6 In 1561, Sever, Memoirs of Bristol, ii. c. 26, p. 238.

COUNCIL OF THE MARCHES : 1542-1689 123

but its petition was rejected. 1 In 1604 Farley's case
brought matters to an issue. Farley claimed to hold a
piece of land under a lease from a deceased copyholder.
The widow claimed to re-enter and avoid the lease. She
obtained from the Court of the Marches a decision that
she should have possession till the Court of the Manor
had tried the issue. 2 Farley disobeyed the order and
was imprisoned by the Council. He sued out habeas
corpus from the King's Bench. The writ was disobeyed
by the Council, " for that none of that nature had ever
taken place." Lord Zouche, the President, brought the
matter before the Privy Council. Coke, the Attorney-
General, acted for the King's Bench ; Sir John Croke
and Sir Francis Bacon for the Council. It was ultimately
decided that the King's Bench had the general right and
duty of seeing that Courts like that of the Marches kept
within their due limits, but that it was bound to guard
against abuse of the writ of habeas corpus.

I refrain from entering into, in minute detail, the
" tedious business of the shires," which helped to disturb
English politics and to embitter the relations of King
and Parliament for ten years and more. 3 I shall not
attempt to summarise the learned arguments of Coke,
the champion of the common law, against the jurisdiction
of the Council, 4 nor the equally recondite arguments of

1 Brit. Mus. Colt. MSS. Vitellius, c. i. ff. 208-9.

2 Croke's Reports, Trin. Term. 2 Jac. (1604), vol. ii. p. 36,
case 12.

3 For a full and detailed account of the controversy the reader
is referred to Stebbings' Works of Francis Bacon, Preface to
"The Arguments on the Jurisdiction of the Council of the
Marches," vol. ii. pp. 569-585. See also Skeel, pp. 130-145, who
supplies some further details.

4 Coke's Inst. iv. 242.

124 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

Bacon, the champion of the prerogative, against the
shires. Nor will I endeavour to describe the scene at a
meeting of the Privy Council on November 3rd, 1608.
The judges attended, but when asked their opinion they
wisely and prudently remained silent. The king was
there, and young Prince Henry was with him " seated
upon a stoole by, but not at, the (Council) Table." It
would be impossible to do justice to the harangue of the
British Solomon, with his references to Moses and
Jethro, the Emperor Constantine, the Picts and Scots,
and the Heptarchy. He insisted that " all lawe is but
voluntas regis," and turning round to the poor young
Prince, seated still on his stool, the " wisest fool in
Christendom " sapiently exclaimed, "this concerneth you,
sir, and I hope you will loose no thinge which is yours."
It was little wonder that the Lord Chief Justice and
Chief Baron " swelled soe with anger " at this truly
royal outburst " that teares fell from them." I shall
not follow the Parliamentary fortunes of the controversy.
Suffice it to say that on one occasion the House of Com-
mons carried through a Bill declaring the jurisdiction of
the Council over the four shires to be illegal, that the
Bill was dropped in the Lords, and that in the end the
Commons obsequiously left the whole matter in the hands
of His Majesty's Grace. The Grand Jury of Hereford
presented a Bill charging the Council with being a
nuisance, and in 1610 it is recorded that the processes of
the Council were contemptuously set at naught in the
four shires.

It would appear, therefore, that the jurisdiction of
the Council in the four border counties was in abeyance
for some years. In 1617, however, when Lord Compton
(afterwards the Earl of Northampton) became President,

COUNCIL OF THE MARCHES : 1542-1689 125

his Instructions were that no distinction was to be made
between Wales and the four counties, and that the
Council should have jurisdiction up to £50. So matters
continued till the Long Parliament met in 1640. In
December the House appointed a committee consisting
of all the Welsh and all the legal members, with Edward
Hyde, afterwards Earl of Clarendon, as Chairman to
examine into the jurisdiction of the Council. The report
was unfavourable, and in July, 1641, a Bill was passed
abolishing the Star Chamber and the similar jurisdiction
in the Council of the Marches. The civil jurisdiction of
the Council was not interfered with, but its jurisdiction
in the four border counties was declared to be illegal.
For the next twenty years the work of the Council fell
into abeyance. Lord Bridge water, the President, made
no attempt to keep the Council alive even for legitimate
purposes, and it almost appeared as if the Council of
Wales was as dead as its prototype, the Star Chamber.
With the Restoration, however, the fortunes of the Coun-
cil revived. A petition, signed by nearly 3,000 persons
from the English counties, requested its restoration,
and Herefordshire, which once declared it to be a nuis-
ance, produced more than half the petitioners. Lord
Clarendon, who was now Lord Chancellor and the king's
chief minister, was not forgetful of the conclusions of
his Committee of 1641. The civil jurisdiction of the
Council in Wales was revived (but henceforth it had
no administrative duties to perform), and though it
continued to reside in Ludlow, its jurisdiction over
Shropshire and the other border counties was terminated
for ever.

For the last twenty-eight years of its existence, there
is very little material to show the nature and extent of

126 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

the Council's activities. The President became a
glorified Lord-Lieutenant of the twelve counties of
Wales. The Castle of Ludlow and Tickenhill Palace
at Bewdley were restored and newly furnished at great
expense to the State by Lord Carbery. The Duke of
Beaufort, the last effective President, made an osten-
tatious " Progress " through Wales, finishing up with
lavish festivities at Ludlow. But the Revolution of
1688 sounded the death-knell of the Council. The
tendency of the age was towards the centralisation of
executive power in London, and the curtailment of all
that savoured of the royal prerogative . Less than twenty
years later Scotland surrendered her national Parlia-
ment, and the government of " North Britain " hence-
forth was located in London. The Council of Wales
had never been very popular. Attempts had been made
to abolish it in the early years of Elizabeth. The
border counties which surrounded it had succeeded in
liberating themselves from its jurisdiction. There was
no national feeling in Wales which would favour its
retention as an emblem and symbol of the separate
entity of Wales. The Council was therefore suppressed
with insult and ignominy, which with all its defects it
little deserved, by 1 William and Mary, c. 27 (1689).
The preamble recites that " the proceedings and decrees
of that Court have by experience been found to be an
intolerable burthen to the subject within the said
Principality contrary to the Great Charter, the known
laws of the land, and the birthright of the subject and
the means to introduce an arbitrary power and govern-
ment " and " all matters examinable or determinable
before the said Court may have their proper address in
the ordinary Courts of Justice provided and settled in

COUNCIL OF THE MARCHES : 1542-1689 127

the several shires within the said Principality," and it
is enacted that the Council, which had existed for over
two hundred years, should be dissolved. When it is
remembered that the Council since the Restoration had
existed only as an ordinary court of law, which had been
set up by the Statute of 1542, and had little executive
authority, the sonorous denunciation of its unconstitu-
tional position in the preamble was somewhat beside the
mark. Its abolition was due, not to any shortcomings
in itself, but to Whig detestation of its origin. Hence-
forth, sheriffs were to be nominated, not by the Lord
President, whose office disappeared with the Council, but
by the Court of Great Sessions. The other administra-
tive functions of the Lord President were discharged by
the Secretary of State. The administrative distinction
between Wales and England was obliterated. The
Parliament of George II. was only recognising the true
facts when it enacted that the term " England " when
used in a statute should necessarily comprise Wales.
The only distinctive institution that remained to Wales
was the Court of Great Sessions. But the doom of the
Sessions was sealed when the Council of Wales was
abolished. As will be seen, the position of the Court of
Great Sessions became soon untenable, and English
lawyers and statesmen never rested till the last national
institution of the Principality was destroyed.

CHAPTER IV

THE KINGS COURT OF GREAT SESSIONS : 1542-1830

The Act of 1542 set up a complete machinery for the
government of Wales. As a piece of draughtsmanship
it was a wonderful achievement. It consisted of one
hundred and thirty sections, and was therefore one of
the most comprehensive enactments passed in Tudor
times. It was described more than 250 years after by a
competent commentator " as containing a most complete
code of regulations for the administration of justice,
framed with .such precision and accuracy, that no one
clause in it hath ever yet occasioned a doubt or required
an explanation." *

It fixed the geographical limits of Wales, it divided
Wales into her component counties, it selected its
capital town for each county, and its work has survived
practically without alteration to our own days. It
gave, as has been shown, statutory sanction to the Coun-
cil of Wales and the Marches, to which also it added
some of the features of an ordinary court of law. It
created, however, a new court — the King's Court of
Great Sessions in Wales. By means of these two courts,

1 Russell's Practice of the Carmarthen Circuit (1814), Intro,
p. xxvii. citing Observations on the Statute, p. 514, a manuscript
book of practice then in the possession of the Prothonotary of the
Carmarthen Circuit.

128

COURT OF GREAT SESSIONS : 1542-1830 129

English laws and customs were introduced for the first
time into the whole of Wales, the land laws of England
took the place of the old system of Welsh land tenure,
primogeniture superseded gavelkind, 1 " arthel " and
" cymhorthau " were extinguished, English became
the official language instead of Welsh, and the vast
revolution was effected seemingly without exciting the
animosity of the proud and sensitive race whose whole
condition of life was so suddenly transformed.

The Court of Great Sessions was clothed with wide
powers. It was directed to hold all manner of pleas of
the Crown "in as large and ample a manner " as the
Court of King's Bench in England, and also " to hold
Pleas of Assizes, and all other Pleas and Actions Real,
personal and mixt, in as large and ample a manner as
the King's Chief Justice of the Common Pleas in England,
and other justices of the same Pleas, or any of them,
may do in the Realm of England." 2 It was also given
complete criminal jurisdiction over offences " of what
natures, names, and qualities soever they be," and
generally " to minister common justice to all and
singular the King's subjects . . . according to the laws
statutes and customs of the Realm of England, and
according to the present ordinance." 3

The Court of Great Sessions had an equitable jurisdic-
tion, but when and how it acquired it has been a matter

1 But gavelkind still survived in some localities. For notable
instances see Owen's Pembrokeshire, vol. i p. 61 n. ; vol. iii. 146 n.

2 Sec. 12.

3 Sec. 13. The addition of the words " according to the present
ordinance " was rendered necessary by the fact that some of
the legal proceedings (e.g. Sec. 15) in the Courts of Great Sessions
were directed to be carried on after the manner and form which
had before that time been used in North Wales.

W.M.W. I

2

130 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

of controversy. It was certainly not specifically con-
ferred by the Act of 1542. 1 A great deal of our know-
ledge of the practice and procedure of the Sessions is
derived from the evidence given by witnesses who were
examined before the Select Committee which was origin-
ally set up in 1817 and made its final report in 1821
One of the witnesses was Mr. Justice Burton of the
Chester Circuit (1788-1817). He hazarded the con-
jecture that the equitable jurisdiction had attached to
the Welsh Courts in the " ancient counties " long before
the Statute of Henry VIII., " although it is probable
that during the existence of the Court of the President
and Council of the Marches, which was abolished by
William III., a considerable portion of that equitable
jurisdiction may have been drawn within the cognizance
of that Court." 3 Several circumstances tend to confirm
this view of the origin of the Court's equitable juris-
diction. One is that though the Chamberlain of Chester
continued as before to make his equitable writs for the
County Palatine returnable before himself, yet he appears

1 " It is said in the Observations on the Statute that the mode in
which the Courts of Great Sessions obtained their jurisdiction
is rather dark, as the Statute most particularly enumerates
every officer in the Courts of Law. but does not allude to pro-
ceedings in equity " (Russell's Practice, Intro, xxx. n. 1).

2 The Select Committee was appointed in 1817 with the Rt. Hon.
George Ponsonby as Chairman. Its Report (which consisted
only of evidence) was issued on July 4th, 181 7, and reprinted
March 10th, 1818 (v. 107). In 1820 the Committee sat again
under the Chairmanship of the Hon Frederick Campbell (after-
wards second Lord Cawdor) and issued a print of the evidence
the same year (ii. 45). In 1821 it issued i*s final report (iv. 233).

3 Cf. Geo. Owen in his " Dialogue " (Owen's Pembrokeshire,
vol ii. p. 42), " unto every of these three sheeres is theare erected
a chauncerye and an exchequer, out of wch. chauncerye all
original writs seald wth. a chauncerye seale."

COURT OF GREAT SESSIONS : 1542-1830 131

always to have made his equitable writs for the County
of Flint returnable before the Justice of Great Sessions.
There was also a Chancery at Carnarvon since the settle-
ment of Edward I. The Act of 1535 (Sec. 10) enacted
that " Justice shall be ministered ... in the shires of
Brecknock, Radnor, Montgomery, and Denbigh (i.e.
the four new shires) . . . after such form and fashion
as Justice is used and ministered to the King's subjects
within the three shires of North Wales." Dr. Nicholas
gives an account, in Annals and Antiquities of the Counties
and Families of Wales (p. 244), of the seal of Henry V.,
while Prince of Wales, for the lordship of Carmarthen,
which he describes as the " seal of the Carmarthen
Chancery." In 1672 a text-book dealing with the
practice and procedure of the Courts of Great Sessions in
Carnarvon, entitled Practica Walliae, was published.
Its author was Rice Vaughan, a barrister who had
practised for many years before the Courts of Great
Sessions. Though the Council of the Marches was still
in existence, it is said that the " Courts of Great Sessions
have a Chancery within themselves and have had power
to relieve in cases of equity ever since Henry VIII. 's
time." x The Chancery practice was so well established
that Vaughan published as an appendix " The certain
and known Rules to be observed in the proceedings of
the Chancery Court of the Great Sessions of the counties
of Anglesea, Carnarvon, and Merioneth."

Dr. Henry Owen states, without mentioning bis
authority, that " there was at first much doubt whether
the Courts of Great Sessions had any equitable juris-

1 Vaughan's Practica Walliae, p. 7. In the dedication the
editor " P. M." speaks of " the late author," and the " dead
author. '

132 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

diction, but the point was decided in their favour by
the King's Bench in 19 Car. II." 1 Two facts tend to
show that Dr. Owen is mistaken in this view. No case
is to be found in the Reports in which the legality of
the Courts of Equity in Wales was brought into dispute
before the Restoration. In the second place, Vaughan,
who was an active practitioner in the Courts of North
Wales at the time, makes no allusion to the decision of
the King's Bench, but states that the Courts had pos-
sessed their equitable jurisdiction since the reign of
Henry VIII. Mr. Justice Heywood of the Carmarthen
Circuit agreed with Vaughan. When the Act of 1542
was passed, he said, the equitable jurisdiction was taken
away from the Chancellor in the " ancient counties,"
and the Chancery Court was destroyed. But the
necessity for an equitable jurisdiction in the Principality
was still found to exist. In the place of a " Chancellor," 2
a Chamberlain was appointed to hold the seal, 3 but
he was expressly prohibited from hearing equitable
causes. 4 The consequence was that the equitable
jurisdiction devolved upon the judges. Indeed, in
the opinion of John Wyatt of the North Wales Circuit
in 1 82 1, " the legal jurisdiction cannot exist without the
equitable ; because it may happen that it may be
necessary to institute suits for injunction, which may be
necessary to be done on the spur of the moment, in order
to stop proceedings at law from going on." If this was
the case in 1821, how much more necessary was it in

1 Owen's English Law in the Marches, p. 25 ; Owen's Pembroke-
shire, p. 50 n.

2 In sees. 21 and 22 reference is made to " Stewards, Chamber-
lains, or Chancellors."

8 Sees. 16-20. * Sec. 21.

COURT OF GREAT SESSIONS : 1542-1830 133

the days of Henry VIII.? The Court of Great Sessions
exercised equitable jurisdiction because it could not
carry on its functions without it. As the Chamberlain
or Chancellor — who in later times was known as the
Cursitor — was a Chancery official, who was charged with
the duty which devolved in England on the Court of
Chancery of issuing Original Writs, it was probably
thought that the Legislature had inferentially sanctioned
an equitable jurisdiction within the Courts of Great
Sessions. As the Chamberlain was expressly forbidden
to exercise the jurisdiction, the only persons left who
could do so were the judges.

Mr. Justice Heywood, in his evidence before the
Select Committee in 1821, gave a succinct account of
the dispute which arose at the Restoration as to the
equitable jurisdiction. In the year after the Restoration,
he says that " the question whether the Great Sessions
at Brecknock had a court of equity annexed to it arose.
The decision does not appear in the report of either of
the reporters who notice the case (1 Sid. 52 and S.C.,
1 Keb. 129). 1 The former of them states that North
Wales had a Court of Equity from time immemorial ;
but whether South Wales had such a court had often
been disputed, owing to a doubt arising from the Clause
in 27 Henry VIII., c. 26, which gives " such jurisdiction
to South Wales " ; and two cases were cited as having
adjudged, upon solemn debate, in favour of the jurisdic-
tion, one of them so early as the third year of Charles I.
In W T inn's case (1 Sid. 52) the Court of Great Sessions
of North Wales is said " to be the ancient court of the
said kingdom, which had been from time whereof,"

1 Siderfin in noticing the case says : " si South Wales poient
toner pleas in equity ad estre un question soven soits dispute."

134 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

etc... and is confirmed by 27 Henry VIII., "but South
Wales was subdued by the Lords Marcher, and so divided
into counties.'' The question was fairly brought before
the Court, with respect to the Court of Equity of the
Great Sessions for the County of Denbigh in the nine-
teenth year of Charles II., in the case of Pu!rath v.
Griffiths (2 Keb. 259), and the decision in that case seems
to have settled the dispute. A prohibition was moved
for, because Denbigh was only a new county, but the
Court (of King s Bench) refused to grant it, and said
' ' the practice having been always to proceed so, the court
would not now alter it ; and the words of the Statute
that justice should be administered as in North Wales
extends to the Courts of Equity as of law." 1

According to the evidence given before the Select
Committee, the amount of equity work transacted in
the courts was not heavy Bicknell, the secondary of
the Carmarthen Circuit, stated that the average number
of equity cases on his Circuit was three or four Accord-
ing to Christopher Temple, there was never more than
one equity cause tried on each Chester Circuit, while Sir
James Mansfield, one time Chief Justice of Chester,
stated that in his time there were not three equity cases
m ten Circuits. Lord Cawdor, in his letter to the Lord
Chancellor in 1828, says that it appeared " from returns
made to Parliament in 1823 that the number of Bills in
Chancery, filed in the various Courts of Great Sessions
ra Wales, during 11 years, from the beginning of
1812 to the end of the Spring Sessions 1823, amounted
to 689, or 62 per annum ; the number of decrees 256,
or 23 per annum ; and 7 orders on further directions."
He gives the average number of equity causes on the
1 See also 1 Keb. 10, 100, 129, 168.

COURT OF GREAT SESSIONS : 1542-1830 135

Carmarthen Circuit as four, and in Montgomery there
had only been twenty-three equity causes in the eleven
years. 1

The reason for the smallness of the number of equity
causes was that the Welsh Courts had never enjoyed an
exclusive equitable jurisdiction. By sec. 4 of the 1542
Act the President and the Council of the Marches were
given express jurisdiction in " such causes and matteis
as be or hereafter shall be assigned to them by the
King's Majesty," and it is certain that down at least to
1641, when the Council ceased to sit till it was revived
at the Restoration, the bulk of the equitable work was
transacted at Ludlow. 2 The Court of the Council was
permanent : it sat during four terms, not merely for two
weeks in the year ; and it had its proper officers for
carrying on the Chancery administration. After it was
abolished in 1689 most if not all of the equity causes
were tried in London, where the Court of Chancery
exercised a concurrent jurisdiction. Indeed, the Courts
of Great Sessions never seem to have made a serious
effort to enlarge their work on the Chancery side. Their
machinery was incomplete ; the secondary of the Circuit
acted as Master in Chancery ; and there were no means
of enforcing the decisions of the Court in the vacation.
The equitable jurisdiction was, however, regarded as
advantageous because it aided and supplemented the
common law jurisdiction of the Courts. The equity
causes consisted nearly entirely of injunctions in cases
of ejectment and in matters relating to the property
of infants, bills for account, suits to foreclose, and suits

1 P. 20.

2 In the Hilary Term, 1633, there were twenty-two equity suits
before the Council of the Marches (Skeel, p. 154).

136 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

for redemption. 1 In strictness, the equitable jurisdic-
tion, said Mr. Justice Burton, wa? " confined to the
county where it originates, so that a party is not entitled
to go into the second or third county, unless the adverse
party asks some favour." But in practice the rigidity
of the rule was relaxed, and the equitable jurisdiction
became ambulatory throughout the circuit. 2

The Select Committee, which reported in 1821, was
unsparing in its condemnation of the equitable juris-
diction.

" The objections to a local jurisdiction apply with
greater force to the Court of Equity. The circumstance
of the Court being open onty during three weeks twice
a year, thereby not affording an opportunity for those
applications to the Court from time to time, so important
in the course of a suit in equity ; the rapidity of some
proceedings and the tardiness of others ; the delay
which must necessarily arise from the adjournment of
causes from one session to another, so that during a
period of ten or eleven months in the year no progress
can be made, thereby rendering a suit in the Great
Sessions necessaiily more dilatory and prolix than in
the Courts above ; the want of time for taking accounts
and executing references during the Circuit : the want
of power under which the Court at present labours of
cairying its own decrees and orders into execution ;
the facility with which a person not resident within the
jurisdiction may withdraw himself from the consequences
of a suit which he foresees will have an unfavourable

1 See the evidence of Mr. Justice Hey wood in 181 7 and of
Wyatt in 1821.

2 Lord Cawdor, in his letter, gives one scandalous case where,
in 1827, the ambulatory jurisdiction of the Brecknock Circuit
had been abused.

COURT OF GREAT SESSIONS : 1542-1830 137

conclusion, while the party residing within the juris-
diction is bound down and concluded by its decrees ;
the want of security in some instance for the monies
paid into court ; the incompatible offices united in the
same person ; the possibility of no decision being given
in consequence of the division of a Court composed of
two persons ; and the consideration that there is no
appeal from its decrees except to the House of Lords :
all tend to show the imperfect nature of the juris-
diction."

The equitable jurisdiction was undoubtedly imperfect.
As has been pointed out, however, it was not designed to
compete with the regular Chancery Courts in London,
but to be merely ancillary to the common law juris-
diction of the Court of Great Sessions. Even in this
respect, however, it was imperfect in its machinery.
Lord Kensington, in the evidence which he gave before
the Select Committee in 1820, supplied a somewhat
startling illustration of this. The Court of Great Sessions
had granted an injunction against him. He, however,
ignored it on the advice of Sir Samuel Romilly, who
pointed out that the injunction could not be enforced
as the Court only sat for six weeks in the year, and he
did so with impunity. While, however, the equitable
jurisdiction of the Court could easily be assailed on
theoretical grounds, and though there were many cases
in which Mr. Justice Burton admitted that it could not
be exercised with utility, there seemed to be a consensus
of opinion among those who gave evidence before the
Select Committee that it was advantageous to have the
jurisdiction. That was the opinion of Mr. Justice
Burton, who had practised on the Brecknock and
Carmarthen Circuits before his promotion to the Chester

138 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

Bench. Benyon, the Attorney-General for the Chester
Circuit, was of opinion that " it was rather expeditious
than otherwise, particularly when I contrast it with
what happens in London." Mr. Justice Heywood
described it as "a cheaper, more convenient, and more
satisfactory mode of obtaining the object of parties
on account of its nearer home than the equity courts "
in London. Christopher Temple, of the Chester Circuit,
stated that " the equity jurisdiction of the Court is
infinitely less expensive than it is in England. Its
quickness as well as its cheapness are its great recom-
mendations, in some cases the party is able to obtain
a decree in one Session, or at all events he is sure of it
in the next Session." Both Counsel and Judge of
the Carnarvon Circuit were emphatic in their support of
the equity jurisdiction. Mr. Justice Leycester pre-
sented an address to the Select Committee in 1821 from
the Grand Jury of Anglesea, in which they expressed
their entire satisfaction with the manner in which the
law was administered. They went on to say : ' When
we compare the manner in which justice is administered
here with the hurry of an English Assize, or with the
indefinite delay of the High Court of Chancery, when we
look at the comparative costs in these courts, as well
as the facilities that are here afforded to compromise,
we cannot but consider our local judicature as one of the
most valuable of our privileges."

The truth, however, was that the abolition of the
Council of the Marches had made it impossible for the
Courts of Great Sessions to exercise a full equitable
jurisdiction. The anomaly of the Welsh Courts exer-
cising all the powers of the Common Law Courts, without
possessing the machinery requisite for administering an

COURT OF GREAT SESSIONS : 1542-1830 139

equitable jurisdiction, rendered them open to deadly
criticism. Full advantage of this anomalous state of
things was taken by English lawyers and Welsh
magnates who, with shortsighted vision, wished to
amalgamate the administration of Wales with that of
England.

The forms and methods of English legal proceedings
were followed in the Courts of Great Sessions. The
practice was assimilated to that which obtained in the
Courts at Westminster. The pleadings continued,
down to the last days of the Court, to be settled in Court,
as was the custom in England at the time of the passing
of the Act. The differences in the practice and con-
stitution of the Welsh and English Courts were few and
insignificant. They were due in the main to the fact
that the Court of Great Sessions was a strictly local
jurisdiction, and its procedure was necessarily adapted
to the needs of the Principality.

The Court did not sit during the four legal terms, as
the Courts did at Westminster. Sees. 5 and 14 of the
Act of 1542 enacted that the Courts of Great Sessions
should be held twice a year, and that " every of the said
Sessions shall be kept and continued by the space of
six days in every of the said shires at either of the said
times, as is or hath been used within the said shires
of North Wales, and that the said Justices shall cause
open Proclamations to be made in the shire-towns,
what time they purpose to keep their said Sessions,
fifteen days at the least before they keep the same."
This provision was never varied. The Sessions were kept
in each county town twice a year " about the times of
spring and autumn," in pursuance of writs of summons,
made out by the prothonotary, tested by the Chief

140 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

Justice of the Circuit, and directed to the sheriffs of
the counties within the jurisdiction. 1 Each Session
lasted six days, but it was held that they were not
necessarily six successive days. 2 The date of the Ses-
sions was fixed, as Borough Sessions are still fixed, by
the presiding Judge. Some dissatisfaction was occasion-
ally expressed at the way the Judges used this power.
They were practising barristers in the English Courts,
and were sometimes inclined to fix their Courts, not
merely in the vacation, but at times inconvenient to
suitors and jurors, in order to serve their own conveni-
ence. 3 But no complaint on this score was made to the

1 Foley's Practice, p. 6 ; Russell's Practice, c. ii.

2 Cresswell v. Vaughan, 2 Saund. 41.

3 George Owen in his " Dialogue of the Government of Wales,"
(p. 116) complains of the " inconvenience in keeping the Great
Sessions of one terme of the Counsell of the Marches yearlie in
Lent, which you say is a hindrance to the thrift of the Countrie
and . . . poor husbandmen do most complaine of this, whose
complaint for the most parte is heard last of all others." In a
MS. book of precedents of pleading kept, it is thought, by Sir
Erasmus Williams of Llwynwormood, in the County of Car-
marthen, now in the writer's possession, there is a curious indict-
ment dated March 31, 1708. "The Grand Jury of the Great
Sessions for Carmarthenshire present Philip Neve, Sergeant-at-
law, and senior Judge of the Circuit, for having on the 1st March
then instant at Abergwilly arbitrarily and illegally appointed this
present Session for the County to be held on Wednesday (which
according to the usual custom used to be held on Saturday night
or on Monday morning and continued for the residue of the
same week) and which being in Passion week is not only to the
high displeasure of Almighty God when all good Christians should
be exercised in the discharge of their duty and service to God . . .
but also a great let and hindrance to His Majesty's subjects
suitors in the said Court and a great delay of justice for by these
means His Majesty's subjects cannot begin and have the effect
of their suits in any one Great Session, but must of necessity
be retarded to the next ensuing Great Sessions which is near
the space of one whole year."

COURT OF GREAT SESSIONS : 1542-1830 141

Committee which inquired into the condition of the
Courts in 1817-1821. 1

How the six days were used in the earlier years there
is no means of knowing. It would appear from the
language of Sec. 2 of 18 Elizabeth, c. 8 (the Act which
authorised the appointment of a second judge to each
Welsh Circuit) as if the Courts were not only busily
occupied, but were increasing in popularity. 2 Never-
theless, the evidence which is available during the latter
existence of the Courts of Great Sessions would seem to
show that the six days allotted were, in most cases, too
many, though in Carmarthen 3 and in Chester the time,
if anything, would be too short for the volume of the
work to be transacted. When it is remembered that
there were two Courts sitting during the week, it is clear
that in the more rural counties there was much waste
of time. 4

1 Unless a solitary statement by W. E. Taunton, of the Car-
marthen Circuit, may be held to amount to such a complaint.
" The time of holding the Great Sessions," he said, " has fluctuated
according to the convenience of the Judges or the bar."

s Sec. 2, " And for that many great and weighty causes, matters,
questions, demurrers, and ambiguities in Law do thereupon
daily arise, increase, and are like daily more and more to increase."

3 " I can hardly get through what I have to do," said Russell,
of the Carmarthen Sessions. See, also, as to the pressure of work
in the Carmarthen Court of Great Sessions, George Owen's
" Dialogue " in Owen's Pembrokeshire, vol. ii. p. III.

4 Lord Cawdor in his letter to the Lord Chancellor, in 1828,
states that the number of " bills in Chancery " in South Wales
for the eleven years preceding 1823 was 689, or 62 per annum ;
the number of decrees 256, or 23 per annum ; and 7 orders on
further particulars of Common Law actions ; there were tried
by writ of concessit solvere 318, or 29 per annum; of other
causes 999, or 90 per annum ; of criminal prisoners 1,107, or IO °
per annum. In Montgomery there had been 105 causes, or
5 causes per annum for each judge, and 23 equity cases.

142 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

The Justices held ten Courts during the six days —
three Courts to appear, three to declare, and three to
plead. 1 Mr. Justice Heywood of the Carmarthen
Circuit, in his evidence before the Select Committee of
the House of Commons in 1817, gives an account of how
the six days were taken up. The first day marked the
entrance of the Judges into the Sessions town, followed
by members of the bar. On the second day the Grand
Jury were charged, motions were heard, and routine
business transacted. On the third day the Old Issues,
i.e. the causes in which issue had been joined before the
first day of the Sessions, were tried. The fourth day
was given over to the trial of prisoners. On the fifth
day the New Issues were tried, and on the sixth, miscel-
laneous work was done. The number of causes entered
in the Carmarthen Circuit varied from thirty-three in
1808 to ninety-eight in 1815, though Mr. Justice Hey-
wood does not inform us how many were tried, and the
number of prisoners rose from eight in 1807 to twenty-
three in 1816. Russell gives practically the same
account. 2 The first Court was held on the evening of
the first day, but neither counsel nor suitors were
required to attend, as the proceedings were merely the
reading of the writ of summons, and were then adjourned
to the first Court of the following day. At the second
Court, which was held at three o'clock in the afternoon
of the second day, the charge to the Grand Jury was
delivered, and motions were made by counsel. Motions
formed part of the work of every Court, though at the
last Court they were usually confined to " motions of
course." The tenth Court was held on the morning of
the sixth and last day of the Sessions.

1 Foley's Practice, 43. 2 Russell's Practice, c. ii.

COURT OF GREAT SESSIONS : 1542-1830 143

The Chancery business was carried on at some of
the Courts, as the other business might permit. The
Chancery cases were usually heard at the evening Courts.

All the pleadings in the New Issues were regulated
by the Court sitting in banc. 1 When time was required
for filing a declaration, or for pleading, the Court would
fix any day in the vacation which they thought proper ;
but usually time was given to a day called " the common
day," which in the vacation after the Spring Great
Sessions was the first day of Trinity term, and in that
after the Autumn Great Sessions was the first day of
Hilary term. 2

Sections 16-19 enact there should be four original
seals, devised by the King's Highness, for justice to be
ministered respectively in the three shires of North
Wales ; in Carmarthen, Cardigan, and Pembroke ;
in Brecknock, Radnor, and Glamorgan ; in Denbigh
and Montgomery, which should be in the keeping and
custody of the Chamberlain of North Wales, South
Wales, Brecknock, and Denbigh respectively. There
were thus four groups of counties constituting four
" Circuits " in Wales. Section 20 enacts that the
original seal of Chester shall stand for the original seal
of Flint, and should remain in the custody of the
Chamberlain of Chester.

The difference therefore between the practice of the
Welsh Courts and the Westminster Courts was slight.

1 All pleading was at first oral in open Court in the presence
of the Judge, who superintended or " moderated the laro ",
contention. Oral pleading was abandoned temp. Edward III.
but it is not known when the practice of regulating pleadings
by the Court, which survived in Wales till 1830, was abandoned
in England {Stephen on Pleading, pp. 29-30).

8 Foley's Practice, 44.

144 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

The Chamberlain or Chancellor (as he is indifferently
called in Sees. 21 and 22) issued the original writ, and
not the Court of Chancery as in England. The Chamber-
lain was a Chancery officer who became known in later
times as the Cursitor. He was appointed by the Crown
for life by letters patent, and his sole function was to
issue original writs, and to account for the profits of
his office to the king.

Section 33 enacts that " all personal Actions, as Debt,
Detinue, Trespass, Accompt, and such like, amounting
to the sum of 40s. or above, shall be sued by writs
original, to be obtained and sealed as is aforesaid, or
by Bills, at the pleasure of the party suing the same,
before the said Justices within the limits of their author-
ities, as is used in North Wales." But all actions real
and mixt, Attaints, Conspiracies, Assizes, and Quare
Impedit, Appeals of Murder and Felony, and all, actions
grounded upon any Statutes, had to be sued by original
writ, 1 while all personal actions under the sum of 40s.
were to be sued by Bill, " as is used in North Wales."

In England an original writ (breve originate) issued
out of the Court of Chancery under the Great Seal. It
was in the king's name, it was directed to the sheriff of
the county where the injury was alleged to have been
committed, it contained a summary statement of the
cause of complaint, and it required the sheriff, in most
cases, to command the defendant to satisfy the claim ;
and on defendant's failure to comply, then to summon
him to appear in one of the superior Courts of Common
Law, there to account for his non-compliance. If the
defendant did not appear to the original writ, there
issued other writs, called writs of process. They came

1 Sec. 32.

COURT OF GREAT SESSIONS : 1542-1830 145

from the Court of Common Law, not from the Court of
Chancery, and were not under the king's seal, but under
the private seal of the Court. Hence they were called
judicial writs. All actions commenced with the issue
of an original writ, unless either the plaintiff or the
defendant was " privileged," i.e., an officer or a prisoner
of the Court. In that case, the procedure would be by
Bill without suing out an original writ. But this pro-
cedure by Bill related only to personal actions, and not
to real or mixed actions. 1

Such was the practice in the English Courts at the
time of the passing of the Act of 1542. The procedure
sanctioned by Sees. 33-34 of suing by Bill instead of by
original writ, at the option of the litigant, was a note-
worthy improvement on the inelastic English practice.

The chief utility of proceeding by Bill seems to have
been the acceleration of the trial of a cause.

' If the debt be due within 15 days of the Sessions,
or the case otherwise lyes (as several wayes it may) so
that the action cannot be begun by an original writ,
then there must be a Queritur or a Bill had from the
Prothonotary's office." 2

On the other hand, if a substantial amount was at
stake, or it was feared that the defendant would remain
outside the jurisdiction, the plaintiff would prefer to sue
by original writ in order that he might, in the last resort,
" proceed to Outlawry against the defendant," which
he could not do unless he had proceeded by original
writ.

But the most characteristic proceeding in the Courts
of Great Sessions was the action known as Concessit

1 Stephen on Pleading, p. 5.

8 Practica Walliae, 10 ; Jones's Practice (1828), p. 63.
w.m.w. K

146 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

Solvere. It was well established in the time of Rice
Vaughan, who describes it with some minuteness.

" In all or most actions of Debt without Bond or
Specialty upon simple contracts, there is a far shorter
and less intricate way to declare, and so ground an
action, then in the Courts above at Westminster, by the
ancient custome of North Wales, had and deduced from
those three Northern Counties that were shire-grounds
time beyond all memory, 1 and are (indeed) rightly and
properly the very North Wales, which way is by meer
and plain Concessit Solvere, and no matter expressed
besides the time and place of the contract, and the day
of payment, whereunto the defendant most commonly
pleads the afore-mentioned general issue of Nil debet
per patriam, and at the trial the whole matter and con-
sideration will be given in evidence, so that thereby the
plaintiff saves what often falls out, by declaring specially
in an action upon the case for every debt upon small
contracts, wherein the plaintiff will be more closely
held to prove all circumstances mentioned in the declara-
tion, for all actions upon the case are strict, and therefore
more subject to miscarry, and by several wayes over-
thrown then those general wayes of Concessit Solvere,
which are constantly used and approved by the priviledge
of the Custome aforesaid, which are often beneficial to
the plaintiff in many things, for the defendant hardly
(till the trial) knows (if many bargains passed between
him and the plaintiff) upon which of them the plaintiff
will produce his proof, and if the plaintiff can make
proof of but part of the Debt declared, he shall recover
so much, for the defendant's plea (upon which issue is

1 The three counties of North Wales were made into shire-
ground by the Statutum Walliae, 1284.

COURT OF GREAT SESSIONS : 1542-1830 147

joyned) sayes he doth not owe that debt or any part
thereof, and so it is beneficial in many things else, but
not in actions upon the case for debt, where the proof
must be punctual with the Declaration." x

There can be no doubt that the use of a general form
of Declaration, and the practice of pleading the general
issue, was highly convenient in days when special plead-
ing had become a fine art, and demurrers and non-suits
on technical and subtle points of pleading had become
general. Nevertheless, the method of pleading in use
in Concessit Solvere was open to criticism. The defend-
ant, as Vaughan gleefully asserts, did not know with
certainty what case he would have to meet, and the
plaintiff would not know which of some seven or eight
defences open to him under his plea of Nil debet would
be relied on by the defendant. These objections pre-
vailed in England for many years, and it was only in
the latter half of the eighteenth century that a general
form of declaration was allowed to be used in indebitatus
assumpsit. According to Sir N. Tindal it was Lord
Mansfield who first adopted it. 2 Lord Holt had seen
the utility of it, but had said that he would be a bold
man who ventured to employ it. The practice was
brought into general practice by Lord Mansfield's
authority, and it did much to mitigate the harsh
rigidity of special pleading. As, however, the defendant
could obtain particulars of the plaintiff's claim, he
suffered no inconvenience, but no trace can be found of a
similar practice in Concessit Solvere.

Vaughan was, however, wrong in supposing that Con-
cessit Solvere was peculiar to the Welsh Courts, for it was

1 Practica Walliae, pp. 12-14.

2 Hansard, vol. xviii. col. 833.

148 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

also known in the Courts of the City of London and of
Bristol. 1 The chief characteristic of the process was that
the plaintiff's claim was for a sum certain, or capable of
being reduced to a certainty, 2 or on a quantum meruit.
Though it was an action for debt, it was held good for
attorney's fees, for rent in arrear, or for money recovered
in the County Court, Court Baron, or Hundred Court,
or for an amerciament in a Leet or Baron Court. The
general rule in later days was that a Concessit Solvere
would lie " in all cases where an indebitatus assumpsit
will lie in England." 3

The defendant in his plea could plead the general
issue, nil debet per patriam ; or he could wage his law,
nil debet per legem. The practice of waging the law fell
into disuse. The last record of it was in 1747. 4

Foley 5 and Russell 6 agree that it was " usual to sue
out an original writ where it is intended to proceed by
a Concessit Solvere." 6 But elsewhere Russell appears to
doubt if it was really necessary to sue out an original
writ. 7 The truth is that in earlier times it was the
custom to proceed by original writ, but in latter days
an original writ was never sued out in Concessit Solvere.
This was due to the introduction of a process upon plain
paper called " The New Rule." This was explained by
Goodman Roberts, attorney, of Ruthin, to the Select
Committee in 1817 in the following terms : ' When you
proceed in an action of debt against a person, you give

1 1 Saund. p. 68, n. 2 ; Pascall v. Sparing, St. 98.

2 Russell's Practice, p. 59.

3 Jones's Practice (1828), p. 63. He states that payment into
Court could be made in the action.

4 Russell's Practice, p. 60. s Foley's Practice, pp. 12-16
6 Russell's Practice, p. 59. 7 See, e.g., note g. on p. 56

COURT OF GREAT SESSIONS : 1542-1830 149

him this sort of notice upon plain paper, viz., ' Take
Notice, that an Action of Debt will be brought against
you, and unless you appear and pay the debt by such a
day, judgment will be signed against you.' This is the
summary method." He stated that the New Rule was
introduced in the North Wales counties in the previous
year, and presumably it had already been introduced
into South Wales. Christopher Temple of the Chester
Circuit, while dwelling on the comparative cheapness of
litigation in Wales, pointed out that whereas in England
all actions commenced by writ, in Wales no writs were
issued, but all actions proceeded on " the new rule."
John Evans, the Deputy-Prothonotary of North Wales,
stated that " whenever a defendant is proceeded against
by the new rule, the declaration is always in Concessit
Solvere." The Common Law Commissioners in their
first Report, issued in 1829, state that the action of
Concessit Solvere " is commenced by notice instead of
writ," and they go on to criticise the action on that
account. For, they said, if the plaintiff, after notice to
the defendant that he is proceeding with his action, does
not attend the Court, the defendant cannot get his costs,
for, as there was no writ, there was no proceeding before
the Court. Similarly, if the defendant paid before issue
was joined, the plaintiff would not get his costs.

After giving fifteen days' notice, the plaintiff attended
the Great Sessions. If the defendant did not appear,
the plaintiff would get judgment by default. About
half the actions brought ended in this way. If the
defendant appeared, the plaintiff would put in his
Declaration. The defendant always pleaded the general
issue, and the plea of the Statute of Limitations and
other pleas, such as set-off, or infancy, could be put

i5o THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

in. All the special pleading in assumpsit was available
in Concessit Solvere. 1

In spite of some obvious drawbacks the action of
Concessit Solvere retained and even increased its popu-
larity. In his evidence before the Select Committee in
1820, James Spencer, attorney, of Hay, said that there
were ten actions of Concessit Solvere brought for every
one other action, though the number of trials was about
equal. An action for rent, for instance, would not be
by Concessit Solvere, and attorneys " for their per-
quisites " often preferred to proceed by Capias in actions
on bonds and notes. Sometimes, too, there was no time
to give fifteen days' notice, and in that case proceedings
by Capias would be taken. But, as a rule, Concessit
Solvere was cheap, speedy, and efficacious.

Proceedings by Bill in England were more limited
than in the Welsh Courts. They were at one time con-
fined to actions in which either the plaintiff or the
defendant was a privileged person, i.e. an officer or
prisoner of the Court, or a Member of Parliament. But
such actions had to be personal actions, and not real or
mixed. By Sec. 33 of the Act of 1542, all personal
actions might, and all personal actions under 40s. must,
be by Bill. The Bill was required to be sealed with the
judicial seal in the custody of the Justice, and also to
be tested by the Justice. 2

After 6 George II., c. 14, the practice of proceeding
in the actions mentioned in Sec. 32 of the 1542 Act by
original writ was gradually discarded in the English

1 See the evidence of Oldnall Russell and Christopher Temple
before the 181 7 Select Committee, and Mr. Justice Hey wood, in
1821.

1 Sees. 37-38.

COURT OF GREAT SESSIONS : 1542-1830 151

Courts, and the Welsh Courts adopted the same pro-
cedure as prevailed in the Common Pleas. 1 The new
practice was to proceed by Capias ad respondendum,
without suing out an original writ. 2 The Capias was a
judicial or process writ, issuing from the Common Law
Court upon a supposed original, 3 and was obtained from
the Prothonotary upon delivering a memorandum or
minute of the attorney's warrant, containing the names
of the parties prosecuting and defending the suit, of the
attorney concerned, and the style of the court in which
the action was brought, 4 and delivering also a praecipe
for the writ. 5 The writ had to be tested by the Chief
Justice, and made returnable on the first Wednesday in
any month during the vacation, or on the first day of
the next Sessions. 6 If it was not intended to arrest the
defendant, the praecipe ran as follows :

" Carmarthenshire to wit. — Capias for A.B.

against CD. late of in trespass (or as the

case may be) returnable on ."

If it was intended to arrest the defendant the ac etiam
clause had to be added after the mention of the cause

1 Foley's Practice, p. 25, held that proceedings by capias were
first established by 6 George II., c. 14.

2 Russell's Practice, c. vi. ; Foley's Practice, p. 6.

3 Russell, p. 67, n., who disagrees with Foley, p. 25. Stephen
(On Pleading, p. 25) says that capias was originally a process
writ, but that it became the general practice, in order to save
time and expense, to resort to it in the first instance, and to
suspend the issue of the original writ, or even to neglect it
altogether, unless its omission should afterwards be objected
to by the defendant.

4 25 George II., c. 80, sec. 13.

5 Foley's Practice, p. 7.

6 13 George III., c. 51, sec. 15.

152 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

of action, i.e. " and also for £100 upon promises." x A
proper affidavit of the debt had also to be prepared and
filed with the Prothonotary before or at the time of
suing out the writ. In the latter days of the Court, all
the proceedings were by Concessit Solvere or Capias.

The Act of 1542 enacted that a Justice should be
appointed for each of the four Welsh Circuits. The
Justice of Chester was enjoined " to hold Sessions twice
in every year in the shires of Denbigh, Flint, and Mont-
gomery, and have nothing but his old fee of an hundred
pounds yearly for the same." 2 The Justice of North
Wales was to hold Sessions in Carnarvon, Anglesey, and
Merioneth at a yearly fee of £50. 3 Another Justice, at
a like salary, was to hold Sessions in the counties of
Brecknock, Radnor, and Glamorgan ; 4 and a fourth in
Carmarthen, Cardigan, and Pembroke. 5 By the Statute
18 Elizabeth, c. 8, it was enacted that " forasmuch as
by the good administration of justice the Principality
... of Wales and the County Palatine of Chester are
reduced to great obedience of Her Majesty's laws and
the same greatly inhabited and manured, and peopled
. . . and for that many great and weighty matters
questions demurrers and ambiguities in law do there-
upon daily arise increase and are like daily more and
more to increase within the said shires " it is ordained,
in reply to the most humble petition and suit 6 of the
inhabitants of Wales and Cheshire, to have two justices
learned in the law in each of the several Circuits. From

1 Russell's Practice, pp. 16-17, of Precedents. But it was held
in Boyd v. Durand, 2 Taunt., 161, that this was not absolutely
necessary.

2 Sec. 6. 3 Sec. 7. 4 Sec. 8. s Sec. 9.
6 No trace of this Petition has been discovered.

•COURT OF GREAT SESSIONS : 1542-1830 153

1576 onwards, therefore, two justices were appointed to
each Circuit. They sat in separate Courts for the trial
of jury cases, civil and criminal, but they sat in banc
for chamber and chancery work. The question was
raised in the reign of James I. whether they should be
appointed by letters patent under the great seal or by
commission. It was referred by the Privy Council to
the consideration of the twelve judges, who decided that
the appointment ought to be by letters patent. 1

The fees or salaries of the justices were at first fixed
at £50 a year for seven judges, and £100 a year for the
Chief Justice of Chester ; £30 a year was allowed for
" diet." During the Commonwealth the salaries were
fixed at £250 a year. After the Restoration the old
salary was paid.

In 1759, 1772, and 1809 the salaries of all the Welsh
judges were increased by Act of Parliament, so that in
1830, when the Courts of Great Sessions were abolished,
the Chief Justice of Chester enjoyed a salary of £1630,
the puisne Justice of Chester £1250, and each of the
other six judges £ii5o. 2 The Chief Justice of each
Circuit received some fees in addition to their salary.
No pensions attached to the offices.

Much was said from time to time to the disparagement
of the Welsh judges. Perhaps the oldest complaint
against them was that they got to know the gentry of
their Circuit, and became guilty of partial affection when
any of their friends appeared as litigants before them.
Among the Bridgwater Papers is a document headed

1 Coke's i,ih Inst. c. 47, p. 240.

2 For a more detailed account of the variation in the salaries
of the judges, see the writer's article on the Court of Great
Sessions in the Cymmrodor, vol. xxvi.

154 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

" Provisions for a court to be established in Wales, etc.,
1 641," and it states " how little the presence of two
Justices that be practicers of Lawe at Westminster will
avayle, to whom the Gentrye can make their owne
accesse and applicacion."

The complaint was echoed by Brougham in his famous
speech in the House of Commons on Legal Reform in
1828. The judges, he said, always went the same Circuit.
" And what is the inevitable consequence ? Why, they
become acquainted with the gentry, the magistrates,
almost with the tradesmen of each district, the very
witnesses who come before them, and intimately with
the practitioners, whether counsel or attorney . . . and
out of this grow likings and prejudices." But it is to
be noted that these charges were merely general com-
plaints which would apply against all local courts, such
as County Courts and Police Courts. There was no
attempt to prove that, in fact, the Welsh judges were
partial or corrupt.

Another complaint was better founded. The Welsh
judges could sit in Parliament, and it was asserted that
appointments to the Bench were sometimes made for
political reasons. It is certainly a good rule that a
judge should be debarred from sitting in Parliament,
but it should be remembered that Recorders are to-day
allowed, like the Justices of the Great Sessions, to sit
in Parliament, and to practise at the Bar even in the
very towns where they sit as Recorders. Nor should it
be forgotten that it is only in recent times that the
Master of the Rolls has been declared incapacitated
from sitting in the House of Commons. Lord John
Russell, in a debate in 1820, said that as the Welsh
judges were eligible for seats in that House, their posts

COURT OF GREAT SESSIONS : 1542-1830 155

were looked upon as retainers or rewards for the support
of ministerial measures. 1 Lord Bulkeley stated in 1817,
before the Select Committee, that nearly all the judges
had been in Parliament when appointed. Lord Cawdor,
in his letter to the Lord Chancellor on legal administra-
tion in Wales (1828), said that " individuals have been
selected rather from Parliamentary services than for
their legal acquirements." But it is worthy of note
that in 1829 only one of the eight judges had a seat
in Parliament. 2 Certainly the taunt of political pro-
motion came with a bad grace at a time when — according
to Brougham — " party, as well as merit, must be studied
in these appointments (of judges). ... I defy him (the
Solicitor-General) to show me any instance for the last
100 years of a man, in party fetters, and opposed to
the principles of the Government, being raised to the
Bench. . . . Never have I heard of such a thing, at
least in England." The system was undoubtedly open
to grave criticism ; but we should not apply to it the
higher standard of a later age, and we should not
forget that no complaint of political partiality was ever
brought against the Welsh judges even by their bitterest
critics.

The fact that the Welsh judges were also practising
barristers was another undoubted evil ; but here again
the practical evil was grossly exaggerated in the interests
of partisanship. "Often," said Brougham, "these gentle-
men have left the Bar and retired to the pursuits of
country gentlemen. ... In some cases they continue
in Westminster Hall — which is so much the worse —
because a man who is a Judge one half of the year and

1 Owen's English Law, p. 29.

2 Report of Commission on Common Law, 1829.

156 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

a barrister the other, is not likely to be a good Judge
or a good barrister." " His acting as counsel in England
and judge in Wales," said Lord Cawdor in his letter,
" is a great source of distrust. ... It has also happened,
I believe, that cases have been submitted to Welsh
judges in their capacity as counsel, under feigned names,
and that when the cause has been tried, the same person
has given a different decision." Lord Cawdor had
succeeded Mr. Ponsonby as Chairman of the Select Com-
mittee. He must have known, therefore, that there was
no authentic case where the scandal which he " believed "
had occurred had in fact taken place. The point was
specifically put to Mr. Justice Burton in 1817, and as
he had known the Courts of Great Sessions for over
forty. years, his reply is surely worthy of consideration.

" The Chairman : Is it not in the power of either of
the parties, previous to commencing a suit in the Court
of Great Sessions, to obtain the opinion of the Judge,
in case he is a practising barrister, by putting a case to
him under feigned names ? "

" Burton, J. : Frauds of all sorts may be committed
in such a manner as to elude the most vigilant person ;
but all the Welsh Judges whom I have known have
been peculiarly cautious in guarding against any fraud
of that description : and I believe no Welsh Judge would
ever answer a case put in A and B without obtaining
an absolute assurance that that case did not arise within
his jurisdiction, and certainly if he had found it out
afterwards to have arisen within it, he would not take
part in the trial of the cause, and would take such means
as he could to censure the parties."

There was no suggestion that in fact any such " fraud ' :
had ever been perpetrated. It would have been more

COURT OF GREAT SESSIONS : 1542-1830 157

satisfactory if the Welsh judges had been prohibited
from practising at the Bar or sitting in the House ; but
that is no reason why unproved insinuations should be
levelled against a body of men who on the whole seem
to have discharged the function of their office with
acceptation.

The third and final Report of the Select Committee,
under the chairmanship of the Hon. Frederick Campbell
(afterwards Lord Cawdor), stated that " when the two
Judges differed, there was no decision, and there was no
appeal except to the House of Lords, and by writ of
error to the King's Bench." Here, again, there was no
evidence to support the suggestion that the evil in fact
existed. Mr. Justice Burton, of the Chester Circuit, was
emphatic that no such deadlock had occurred during his
long experience. Mr. Justice Heywood, of the Carmar-
then Circuit, stated that, so far from any inconvenience
arising, " I consider it one of the greatest comforts of
my life to have a co-adjutor on the Circuit. There has
never been a difference of opinion between myself and
my learned friend that has in the least impeded the
business of the Court." The criticism was merely theo-
retical, and in no sense founded on the actual facts.
But if there had been any such inconvenience, it could
have been remedied by forbidding the judges to sit in
banc, or by reducing the number of judges to the original
limit.

The lack of a retiring pension was also a source of
hostile criticism. " Consequently," said Brougham,
" they retain their salaries long after they have ceased
to discharge properly the functions for which they
receive them." But it is not only unpensioned officers
that lag superfluous. County Court judges to this day

158 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

are not entitled, as of right, to a retiring pension. Even
if this were an evil, the remedy was obvious.

It was a common reproach in the mouth of opponents
of the Welsh Courts that, as Brougham said, " in Wales
you have as Judges, I will not say inferior men, but
certainly not the very first." It was certainly true that
the Welsh Bench was inferior to that in the Courts at
Westminster, exactly as the County Court Bench is
to-day inferior to the High Court Bench. But that is
a long way from saying that the Welsh judges were
incompetent. They seem to have given fairly general
satisfaction to Welsh litigants, and hardly a practitioner
wished to change the system. 1 Certainly some of the
most eminent English lawyers acted at some period of
their career as Welsh judges. Among them were Lords
Chancellor Jeffreys and Lyndhurst ; Lords Keeper
Puckering and Lyttleton ; Keble, Bradshaw, and Willes,
who served as Commissioners of the Great Seal ; Lord
Chief Justices of England Ley, Wright, Herbert, and
Kenyon ; Chief Justices of the Common Pleas Mans-
field, Arden, Dallas, and Best ; Vice-Chancellors Plumer
and Leach ; Masters of the Rolls Hare, Jackyll, Verney,
and Grant ; Chief Barons Brooke, Probyn, Skynner,
Macdonald, Richards, and Gibbs ; and a large number
of puisne judges of the Common Law Courts. Out of
the 217 Welsh judges appointed between 1542 and 1830,
more than one-fourth were promoted to the High Court
Bench in England. 2

1 See e.g. the eulogy passed by George Owen (Owen's Pembroke-
shire, vol. ii. 94-97) on all the Justices going the Carmarthen
Circuit in the reign of Elizabeth.

2 ' Of the 200 Judges of the Great Sessions, scarcely 30 knew
the language of the people in whose behalf they were appointed "
(Edwards's Wales, p. 336).

COURT OF GREAT SESSIONS : 1542-1830 159

The Chamberlain. — The original seals were to be in the
custody of the Chamberlains of North and South Wales
and Chester, the Steward and Chamberlains of Breck-
nock and Denbigh respectively. 1 In Sees. 21-22 of the
Act of 1542 this officer is called " Steward, Chamberlain,
or Chancellor." In the later Practice Books he appears
as the Cursitor, 2 who was properly an officer of the Court
of Chancery. He held his office by letters patent under
the great seal for life. 3

The Prothonotary . — Sec. 44 of the Act of 1542 enacted
that each Circuit should have a " prenotary " or pro-
thonotary " for the making of all pleas, process, and
matters of record." To the office was united that of
the Clerk of the Crown. It was held by letters patent
under the great seal for life. It was his duty to attend
upon the justices, to estreat all fines and forfeitures of
recognizances into the Court of Exchequer for the
Circuit. 4 All process, pleas, records, or other proceed-
ings were filed in his office. It was expressly enjoined
that the duties might be performed by deputy. 5

The Secondary was an officer appointed by the Protho-
notary, and acted as Master, Clerk of the Rules, Clerk
of Assize and Deputy-Clerk of the Crown. In his office,
as Deputy-Clerk of the Crown, after an indictment was
found by the Grand Jury, all subsequent proceedings in
criminal matters were carried on. 6

The Marshal or Crier was appointed by the
judge. 7

The Clerk of Indictments was appointed by the Chief
Justice. 8

: Secs. 16-20. * Russell's Practice, p. 6.

3 See p. 17, supra. * Sec. 52. 6 Sec. 44.

6 Foley's Practice, 4. 7 Sec. 45. * Foley's Practice, 4.

i6o THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

Sheriffs were first appointed in the ancient counties
of Wales by the Statutum Walliae. The Act of 1542
directs that there shall be sheriffs appointed by the king
in every shire in Wales, and that their offices shall be of
the same duration as in England, 1 and with the same
power and authority. 2 They were to execute all lawful
commandments and precepts of the Justices of Wales,
to be attendant upon them, to assist them, and to obey
the king's commandments and process from them
directed. 3 By 1 Edward VI., c. 10, sec. 3, they were
required to have deputies in the Courts of King's Bench
and Common Pleas to receive writs, in like manner as
the sheriffs of England. By 1 William and Mary, c. 27,
sec. 3, the Justices of the Great Sessions were to nominate
yearly three substantial persons for each shire, in their
respective circuits, to be sheriffs of the same ; and to
certify their names to the Privy Council crastino ani-
marum to the intent that the king may appoint one of
the persons named to be sheriff for that year. Before
this statute, the President and Council and Justices of
Wales, or three of them at the least, whereof the Presi-
dent was to be one, had yearly to nominate. 4

By Sec. 22 of 3 George I., c. 15, the Welsh sheriffs
were exempted from appearance in the King's Court of
Exchequer, but they were to account before the auditors
of Wales.

The Attorney-General. — -Each Circuit had its own
Attorney-General, who had " the power of appointing

1 Sec. 61. Before 1542 they were appointed for life (Owen's
Pembrokeshire, i. 156 ; ii. 42 ; Breese's Kalendars of Gwynedd,

PP- 31-33).

2 Sec. 62 : for the sheriff's judicial functions see supra, p. 44,

8 Sec. 65. 4 Sec. 61.

COURT OF GREAT SESSIONS : 1542-1830 161

a deputy, as the Welsh Justices used to have before
that power was taken away by the 13th of the King." *
The Attorney-General was appointed by patent under
the Great Seal, and held his appointment during the
pleasure of the Crown. Benyon, the Attorney-General
for the Chester Circuit, thought that the appointment
was probably not made under 34 and 35 Henry VIII.,
but that it was in pursuance of the practice prevailing
in the ancient Welsh counties previously to that statute. 2
But the Crown had certainly power under Sec. 119 to
make such an appointment. In Sec. 34 of the Act of
1830 (1 William IV., c. 70) he is described as " His
Majesty's Attorney-General." His duties were to sign
all indictments before submitting them to the Grand
Jury ; to prosecute prisoners ; and to appear for the
Crown in every case in which the Crown's name was
used. He had a fee of 6s. 8d. for signing each indict-
ment, and a retaining fee of £8 12s. 4d. 3 An attorney,
who was called the " Crown Solicitor," was appointed
to conduct all prosecutions at the expense of the county.
The Bar. — Nothing about counsel is said in the Act,
but it would appear from the evidence of Mr. Justice
Burton before the Select Committee in 1817 that all

1 Mr. Justice Burton's evidence.

1 Sir W. Owen, the Attorney-General for Carmarthen, stated
that " the office was mentioned in the Statute of Henry VIII., as
was also the office of Solicitor-General," though, he added, that
in his opinion " these offices existed before." They are so
mentioned in Sec. 55 of the Act of 1542, where the Attorney and
Solicitor are both made ex officio Justices of the Peace. But
nothing is heard of the Solicitor-General of each Circuit, unless
he was the deputy who might be appointed by the Attorney-
General, or he may be the same person as " the Crown Solicitor."
He is not mentioned in the Act of 1830.

3 Doddridge, p. 72.

W.M.W L

162 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

barristers of the Inns of Court were entitled to practise,
and a few Chancery barristers attended each circuit. 1
In later times nearly all the practitioners were members
of the Northern or of the Oxford Circuit. From the
care which was displayed to fix the Courts in South
Wales after the Oxford Circuit, it would seem as if the
majority of the counsel in the South Wales Sessions
belonged to the Oxford Circuit. Their numbers were
small ; between five 2 and ten 3 attended the Chester
Circuit, twelve or fourteen the Carmarthen Circuit, 4 and
four or five the Brecknock Circuit 5 .

Attorneys. — No Attorneys could practise except such
as were admitted by the Court for each of the districts, 6
after they had been examined by the Judges of the
Court touching their fitness and capacity. 7 Such
Attorneys need not have been admitted as Attorneys of
any of the Courts of Record at Westminster. 8 The only
difference between them and the Attorneys of the West-
minster Courts was in the duty to be paid upon their
contract or clerkship, which was half of the duty paid
in England, and they only had to serve as clerks for
five years. 9 The Prothonotary was to enrol the names

1 Spencer's evidence, 182T.

2 Mr. Justice Leycester's evidence in 1817.

3 Benyon's evidence, 18 17, stated that twenty counsel attended
at Chester.

4 Mr. Justice Hey wood in 18 17.
6 Mr. Justice Wingfield in 1821.

6 Mr. Justice Burton's evidence, 1817.

7 2 George II., c. 23, s. 2.

8 22 George II., c. 46. s. 13.

9 2 George II., c. 23 ; 2 George II., c. 46, sees. 5, 12, 13, 15;
12 George II., c. 13, s. 3 ; 22 George II., c. 46, s. 2, and 30 George
II., c. 19, s. 75 also dealt with the position of Attorneys.

COURT OF GREAT SESSIONS : 1542-1830 163

of Attorneys, who had to take out their annual certifi-
cate, however, from the head office of stamps at Middle-
sex. 1 All Attorneys, so authorised, could act in their
own name in the Welsh Courts ; and in the Courts of the
Counties Palatine of Chester, Lancaster, and Durham
in the name of any Attorney of those Courts who
consented. But they could not act in the Courts at
Westminster. 2

Complaint was made that admission to the profession
was so much cheaper in Wales than in England, and that
litigation was so cheap and plentiful that there was a
multiplicity of Attorneys. George Owen, in the reign
of Elizabeth, brought a similar complaint against the
Ludlow Court. The profession was manned, according
to Lord Cawdor and others, by an inferior class of person,
and a Swansea Attorney stated before the Select Com-
mittee that no Attorney of good standing would dream
of bringing up his son to the profession, because he would
have to associate with undesirable persons. Lord Kens-
ington haughtily said that he never employed a Welsh
Solicitor. That there was some ground for the com-
plaint is true, but the evil again was greatly exaggerated
by the opponents of the Courts of Great Sessions.
Counsel from the Carnarvon Circuit, in 1821, described
the Attorneys as " competent," and there were instances
where Welsh Attorneys were also Attorneys at the
Westminster Courts. 3 It is extraordinary how slight
the evidence was, when the generality and vehemence
of the allegations are remembered. There was certainly
a consensus of opinion, though it was somewhat dis-
counted by the Select Committee, by Lord Cawdor, and

1 2 George II., 23. - 34 George III., c. 14, s. 40.

3 e.g., James Spencer of Hay.

164 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

by the Commissioners in 1829, that litigation was
cheaper in Wales than in England. 1

During the first one hundred years of its existence,
there was little friction between the Courts of Great
Sessions and other courts. It has been shown how
there was a constant tendency on the part of the Council
of the Marches to encroach upon the Common Law
jurisdiction of Great Sessions. The Privy Council time
and again censured the Welsh Council for this practice,
and even as late as 1593 the Council of the Marches was
instructed " to occupy time in hearing misdemeanours
rather than cases triable at Common Law." 2 In the
following year similar instructions were given more in
detail. None the less, the relations between the two
Welsh Courts were on the whole harmonious. The
reason is not far to seek. The judges of the Ludlow
Court were drawn from the Bench of the Great Sessions,
and the Chief Justice of Chester, who was generally the
Vice-President of the Council, presided when the Council
sat as a Court of Law. 3

1 Brougham, though he stated that the Welsh Judicature was
" the worst ever established," gave an appalling account of the
Courts at Westminster and elsewhere, which cannot be paralleled
by any evidence given before the Select Committees. " I asked
the Prothonotary four years ago at Lancaster," he said, " to give
me a list of 50 verdicts obtained at the Lent Assizes. The
average was under ^14. But if the money recovered amounted
in all to less than ^900, the costs incurred certainly exceeded
£5000." At Westminster, a clergyman's widow brought an
action for payment of mortgage money. The costs came to
^99 14s., and the action lasted two years ! Compare this with
the statement made in 1830 in the House of Commons by John
Jones, M.P., who practised on the Circuit, that in Carmarthen
^13,000 had been recovered in 1829 at the expense of £5.

s Lans. MSS. 76, ff. 1 416-9 ; ib. ff. 141&-9 (May 1594).

3 " The Justice of Chester was always the chief working member
and in various ways exercised supervision over them. . . . Care

COURT OF GREAT SESSIONS : 1542-1830 165

As long as the Council survived, the Court of Great
Sessions was not interfered with by the Westminster
Courts. The Council suspended its sittings from 1641
to the Restoration. Shortly after the Restoration we
find for the first time that the equitable jurisdiction of
the Great Sessions was questioned. 1 At first sight it
would seem as if the disappearance of the Council in
1689 would strengthen the position and enhance the
influence of the Courts of Great Sessions. This however
was not the case. The abolition of the Council made
the survival of the equitable jurisdiction of the Great
Sessions somewhat ludicrous in its incompleteness and
imperfection. The jealousy of the Westminster Courts
was transferred to the local jurisdiction. Early in the
eighteenth century they began their attempt to bring
Welsh litigants into their net. 2 The story of the manner
in which the English Courts usurped a jurisdiction in
Wales is characteristic, and it undoubtedly led in the
end to the abolition of the local courts.

One or two attempts had been made in the early
Stuart reigns to claim for the King's Bench a concurrent,
jurisdiction in Wales. But such attempts were not
successful. At the end of Vaughan's Reports, 395, a
treatise is to be found, in which the late Chief Justice
of the Common Pleas, temp. Charles II., cites a case

was taken, in issuing instructions to the Council, to provide for
the absence of the legal members on Circuit. . . . Instances of
conflict of jurisdictions between the two bodies are not common."
(Skeel's Council, pp. 277-8, quoting A.P.C. xii. p. 115.)

1 Supra, pp. 72 seq. It is to be presumed that the appellate
jurisdiction of the Ludlow Court in personal actions was exercised
during the Commonwealth by the House of Lords, though I have
found no evidence of this.

2 " Discourse " (anon.) in Hargrave's Law Tracts, 1. 359.

i66 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

where all the judges decided that " a judgment, given
in Wales, shall not be executed in England, out of their
jurisdiction, and a pari, a judgment, given in England,
ought not to be executed in Wales." After a lengthy
and elaborate argument, the Chief Justice concluded
that Wales was a separate jurisdiction, and that " if
judgments be obtained in the King's Courts against
persons inhabiting in Wales, and process of execution
awarded thither, the judgments will be ineffectual."
He condemned in strong terms the attempt of the King's
Bench to steal the Welsh jurisdiction.

The great authority of Chief Justice Vaughan had
the effect of securing the Welsh Courts from the en-
croachments of the Westminster Courts for two genera-
tions and more. In 1745, however, the attempt was
renewed in the case of Lampley v. Thomas, where it was
argued that a latitat out of the King's Bench could run
into Wales. 1 It was, however, decided " brevis Domini
Regis de latitat (and semble other mesne process between
subjects) non currit in Wallia." 2 In his judgment in

1 1 Wils. 193, v. ; supra, pp. 18-20. *' This great question,"
it is stated in the report, " whether the Court of King's Bench
have jurisdiction to send a latitat into Wales has been four times
most learnedly argued at the bar by gentlemen of the greatest
learning and experience."

2 The anonymous author of the " Discourse " in Hargreave's
Tracts says : " I heard the case of Lampley v. Thomas argued. . . .
This pretence of a jurisdiction in the King's Bench appears to
me to be not only unwarranted by law or precedent, but clearly
opposed and contradicted by both." When an action was
contemplated in the King's Bench against a person not already
privileged, the course was for the plaintiff to cause him to be
arrested on a fictitious charge (foreign to the proposed action)
of a trespass. This was effected by virtue of certain judicial
writs which the Court had power to issue in such cases called
" the Bill of Middlesex and latitat." Upon such arrest the

COURT OF GREAT SESSIONS : 1542-1830 167

Mostyn v. Fabrigas, Lord Mansfield said that "if an
action is brought here for a matter arising in Wales,
you must show the jurisdiction of the Court in Wales.
If there is no other mode of trial, that will give the
King's Court jurisdiction." Whatever may be said
of the soundness of that decision, it came short of
claiming a concurrent jurisdiction for the Westminster
Courts in actions over which it could be shown that
the Welsh Courts had jurisdiction. When, however,
the words of the Act of 1542 are recalled, in which as
large and ample a jurisdiction was conferred on the
Welsh Courts as was enjoyed by the Courts of King's
Bench, Common Pleas, and Exchequer, it is difficult to
understand how the contingency contemplated by Lord
Mansfield could arise. 1

The case of Lampley v. Thomas has been generally
supposed to have been overruled by Lloyd v. Jones

defendant was committed to the prison of the Court, or, according
to the legal phrase, " to the custody of the Marshal of the Marshal-
sea." The plaintiff then commenced the action by filing a
bill against him, which, as he had become a prisoner, was
authorised. If instead of being committed to custody he gave
bail, this was considered as of eqiial effect for the purpose of
founding the jurisdiction. In process of time it came to pass
that the defendant was not actually arrested, but was merely
committed to the custody of the Marshal of the Marshalsea
" by fiction or intendment of law," in order that the plaintiff
might begin his proceedings by suing out a " Bill of Middlesex
and latitat." The anonymous author of the " Discourse
against the jurisdiction of the King's Bench over Wales by
process of latitat " roundly describes latitat as " a fraudulent
contrivance to steal jurisdiction, a lie from the beginning to the
end " (Hargrave's Law Tracts, i. p. 422).

1 The writer of the " Discourse " in Hargrave's Tracts retorted,

' To what purpose will it be for them to harp upon that old

rule, that their Court is not to be ousted of their jurisdiction

without negative words, when they never had any jurisdiction of

which they could be ousted " (p. 409).

168 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

(1769) - 1 This case is only mentioned in a note to the
case of Penry v. Jones (1779), 2 which would appear to
be the case referred to in his evidence before the Select
Committee in 1817 by Mr. Justice Burton. But Russell's
account of the case shows that a great deal more impor-
tance was ascribed to the decision than was warranted
by the circumstances under which the decision was given.

" With respect to the case of Lloyd v. Jones, though
it is said in Douglas that Mr. Justice Yates considered
the question in that case very particularly, and delivered
a solemn argument upon it, yet its authority has been
doubted, and it is to be lamented, if in fact it received
a grave decision, that no regular report of it has been
published. Different accounts of it have been given,
and the author is permitted by Mr. Sergeant Heywood,
the present Chief Justice of the Carmarthen Circuit, to
transcribe the following from a MS. in his copy of
Douglas's Reports :

" ' The real history of this case, as remembered by Mr.
Sergeant Walker, Mr. Filmer (who has a full note), and
Mr. Rudd, is very different from what was stated by
Mr. Justice Buller, and given in the note to Penry v.
Jones. Sergeant Hill was to have argued in support
of the plea ; but being unprepared, the argument was
postponed ; and Mr. Justice Yates contented himself with
making a few observations, and expressing his doubts
whether the plea could be supported. In the next term,
Sergeant Hill having been left in the same uninstructed
state, threw down his brief, and refused to argue it,
and judgment passed sub silentio for the plaintiff.' " 3

1 See e.g. Owen's English Law in Wales, p. 25.

2 Douglas Report, 203.

8 Russell's Practice, Intro, pp. xxxii.-xxxiii. n.

COURT OF GREAT SESSIONS : 1542-1830 169

But, however the practice arose, and whatever the
legal position may really have been, it is certain that
henceforward numerous cases were proceeded with in
England which had their origin in Wales. " The trial
at Hereford," said Mr. Justice Heywood in 1821, " is
a means of oppression in the hands of a rich plaintiff
against a poor defendant." This practice, so generated,
was constantly cited as something to the discredit not
of the English Courts which invented it, but of the Great
Sessions which suffered by it. The evil became so
prevalent that an Act (Rice's Act) was passed in 1773 —
four years after the disastrous decision in Lloyd v. Jones
— to discourage the practice by limiting the jurisdiction
of the English Courts to actions in which £10 or upwards
were recovered. By an Act of 1824 the limit was raised
to £50.

In a note (2) to the case of Draper v. Blaney (1680) 1
it is said that the Statute, 13 George III., c. 51, seems
very clearly to recognise the jurisdiction of all the Courts
at Westminster to hold and issue mesne process against
parties resident in Wales. It is difficult to resist the
force of this contention, though it did not satisfy Russell, 2
who is supported by Tidd's Practice, 3 which stated that
it was a good plea to the jurisdiction of the Court of
King's Bench in local actions to say that the cause of
action arose in Wales, or in a county palatine, cinque
port, or other exempt jurisdiction.

Another device to steal the jurisdiction of the Courts
of Great Sessions arose in the eighteenth century. It

1 2 Saund. 194. The question was whether a fi. fa. on a
iudgment in the King's Bench ran into Wale.°. As the judges
were divided nothing further was done.

2 Intro, xxxii. n. 3 Tidd's Practice, pp. 632-3.

i 7 o THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

was to remove an action which had been started in the
Welsh Courts to the nearest English county by the
prerogative writ of certiorari. Lord Mansfield defended
the practice in cases where it was feared that an impartial
trial could not be had in Wales ; but writs of certiorari
were sued out and granted without notice to the other
party and without inquiry. The evidence given before
the Select Committee of 1817 clearly showed that the
sole reason for suing out certiorari was to delay the
progress of the action. Certain of the Welsh judges
refused consistently to recognise the validity of certiorari
and ignored their existence ; but in some of the Welsh
Circuits the frequency with which these writs were
granted became a formidable embarrassment to the
administration of justice.

The Court of Great Sessions was not, however, blame-
less in its relations with inferior courts. There were
three ways by which an action could be removed from
an inferior court to the Great Sessions : (1) by a writ
of certiorari, if the inferior court was a Court of Record ;
(2) by a writ of recordari facias loquelam, when the cause
depended in the Sheriff's Court, whereby the Sheriff
was commanded to record the plaint in his full County
Court for the purpose of bringing it up before the Court
of Great Sessions ; and (3) by a writ of accedas ad curiam,
when the causes depended in a Lord's Court, whereby
the Sheriff is commanded to go to the Lord's Court, and
cause the plaint to be recorded for the purpose of bringing
it up to the superior court. 1

The power to remove cases, when they were ready
for trial, from the inferior courts to the Great Sessions,

1 Vaughan's Practica Walliae, pp. 29, 30, 32, 33 sq. ; Russell,

C. XV.

COURT OF GREAT SESSIONS : 1542-1830 171

was abused at an early date. 1 It was enacted by
21 James I., c. 23, that no writ, other than writs of
error or attaint, sued forth out of the Court of Great
Sessions to stay or remove any action commenced or
depending in any Court of Record described in the
Act, shall be received or allowed by the steward, judge,
or officer of the Court to whom such writ shall be directed
and delivered, or prevent his proceeding in the cause,
unless such writ should be delivered to him before issue
or demurrer joined in such cause, so as the said issue
or demurrer be not joined within six weeks next after
the arrest or appearance of the defendant to such
action. 2 Another grievance was that actions removed
from an inferior Court of Record to the Courts of Great
Sessions, and by those Courts remanded to the inferior
jurisdiction, were oftentimes again removed from such
inferior court to the Great Sessions. It was there-
fore enacted by Sec. 3 of the same Statute that, if
an action, having been removed to the Great Sessions
from such inferior court, shall by any writ be remanded,
it shall never afterwards be removed or stayed, before
judgment, by any writ whatsoever from the Court of
Great Sessions. Sec. 4 enacted that if in any cause,
not concerning freehold, or inheritance, or title of land,
lease, or rent, it shall appear or be laid in the declaration
that the debt, damages, or things demanded, do not
amount to or exceed the sum of £5, then such cause
shall not be stayed, or removed by any writ or writs
whatsoever, other than writs of error or attaint.

1 The superior court did not take the cause where the record
left off, but began the proceedings de novo (Gunn v. MacHenry,
1 Wils. 277 ; Turner v. Bean, Barnes, 345).

2 Sec. 2.

172 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

By 12 George I., c. 29, sec. 3, it was enacted that this
should be so, although there might be other actions
against the defendant wherein the plaintiff's demand
might exceed the sum of £5.

19 George III., c. 70, forbade the defendant, except
on giving sufficient security, to remove any action under
£10, and 51 George III., c. 124, sec. 4 (which, however,
was only a temporary Act), increased the sum to £15.

It should not be forgotten, however, that the Great
Sessions had still the concurrent jurisdiction in actions
under 40s. which was conferred upon it by Sec. 34 of
the Act of 1542. 1

After the abolition of the Council of the Marches in
1689, the position of the Courts of Great Sessions became
more and more precarious. They continued to be
popular in Wales, and their friends made continual
efforts to meet legitimate criticisms by endeavouring
to remedy their worst defects. 2 The three most impor-
tant of these amending statutes were 13 George III.,
c. 51, which is sometimes denominated " Rice's Act " 3
and at other times " the Welsh Judicature Act," 33
George III., c. 68 and 5 George IV., c. 106.

Rice's Act was passed after the disastrous decision
in Lloyd v. Jones (1769), which has already been referred
to, and which threatened to undermine the whole
foundation of the Great Sessions. It recited that " it
hath been the practice to commence trifling and vexatious

1 The Courts at Westminster were expressly forbidden by
6 Edward I., c. 8, from entertaining a suit where the sum claimed
was under 40s.

2 A full list of these reforming statutes will be found in the
writer's article on the Court of Great Sessions which appeared
in the 26th volume of the Cymmrodor (1916).

3 So called after its sponsor, the Hon. George Rice, M.P.,
afterwards Lord Dynevor.

COURT OF GREAT SESSIONS : 1542-1830 173

suits in the Courts of Westminster upon causes of action
arising within the said Dominion of Wales, in order
that the same may be tried in the nearest adjoining
English county to that part of Wales in which the
cause has arisen," and then went on to enact that " in
case the plaintiff in any action upon the case for words,
action, or debt, trespass on the case, assault and battery,
or other personal action, where the cause of such action
shall arise within the Dominion of Wales, and which
shall be tried at the Assizes, at the nearest English
county to that part of Wales in which the cause of
action shall be laid to arise, shall not recover by verdict
a debt or damages ... of £10," if the judge certifies
that the defendant was resident in Wales, a non-suit
shall be entered with costs against the plaintiff, unless
the judge certifies that the freehold or title of the land
mentioned in the plaintiff's declaration was chiefly in
question, or that the cause was proper to be tried in
such English county. A similar provision with regard
to transitory actions arising in Wales and tried in
England empowers the Court to non-suit the plaintiff
if the debt or damages found by the jury did not amount
to £io. x

By Sec. 15 it was sought to avoid some of the mischiefs
that inevitably arose from the fact that the Courts only
sat for two weeks in the year. It recited that " whereas
all writs relating to actions depending in the Courts
of Great Sessions are returnable at the Great Session
held respectively for the said counties, and at no other
time, by which means no action that is commenced
(except where the defendant voluntarily appears) can
be brought to issue and tried before the second Session

1 Sec. 2.

174 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

after such action is commenced at the soonest, which
is usually near a year, and a great delay to the suitors of
the said Courts ... it enacts that all original writs, bills,
and all mesne process whatsoever . . . shall and may
be made returnable before His Majesty's Justices . . .
on the first Wednesday in any month in each of the two
vacations annually between the two Sessions, or on the
first day of the next Sessions, at the election of the
plaintiff."

The defendant had to enter appearance on the day of
such return, or within fourteen days next after ; and in
case of neglect in " bailable actions," the Sheriff should,
at the request and costs of the plaintiff, assign to the
plaintiff the bail bond taken for the defendant's appear-
ance. On the defendant appearing, the plaintiff should
proceed to file his declaration, and the defendant, in
case the declaration was delivered seven days before
the first day of the Session, should be bound to plead
thereto, before the rising of the second Court.

Sec. 17 conferred upon the Great Sessions the power
hitherto enjoyed by the Courts of Westminster alone,
of trying actions for a penalty, provided the offence was
committed and the defendant was triable and resident
in Wales.

The Act of 33 George III., c. 68, was passed to " remedy
certain inconveniences attending certain proceedings "
in the Court of Great Sessions. One of the difficulties
experienced in the administration of justice in Wales
was the practice of defendants, against whom judgment
had been obtained, to remove their persons and effects
from the jurisdiction. To remedy this, the Westminster
Courts were empowered to issue writs of execution
against such persons.

COURT OF GREAT SESSIONS : 1542-1830 175

The effect of this enactment was to modify the
practice of the Court in another respect. Formerly,
when the plaintiff lived outside the jurisdiction, he was
required to give security for costs. 1 It would appear
that after this statute such security was not required,
and a rule was refused by Mr. Justice Heywood in
Evans v. Morgan under such circumstances. 2

In 1824 (5 George IV., c. 106) the last effort was
made to reform the practice and procedure of the Courts
of Great Sessions. The statute was a courageous
attempt to remedy the defects referred to in the Report
of the Select Committee as calling " for regulation and
amendment." The points more particularly mentioned
by the Committee were :

(a) The long period of the year during which recoveries
cannot be suffered, or fines levied ; and the magnitude
and uncertainty of the expense attending them.

(b) The inability of the Courts to compel the atten-
dance of witnesses residing out of their jurisdiction.

(c) The necessity of moving for a new trial before the
same judges, within a few hours after they have given
misdirection to the jury, upon which the application
is founded.

(d) The want of sufficient security for the funds
directed to be paid into Court, that security depending
entirely on the personal solvency of the officers.

(e) The necessity of the judges and counsel remaining
the same time at each place of their Circuit, whether
there may or may not be sufficient business to occupy
them.

Of these six defects in the Welsh procedure, no less
than five were dealt with by the Act of 1824. The only
1 Foley's Practice, 67. 2 Russell's Practice, 226.

176 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

matter which the Legislature did not alter was the fixed
time of six days during which the Sessions must be
held. But even in this regard it strove to remove the
grievances of suitors. Russell, in his evidence, dwelt
on the expedition with which cases were tried in the
Welsh Courts. " A party may obtain the whole object
of his legal proceedings in three weeks or a month."
But there were two main objections to this expeditious
procedure. One was mentioned by Mr. Justice Moysey
of the Brecknock Circuit. " If the people of Wales,"
he said, " who get themselves involved in law-suits
had time to breathe, and the heat of their litigation to
subside, they would make up their causes long before
they came to trial." * The other objection was men-
tioned by Goodman Roberts, attorney of Ruthin, who
stated that " the time for getting up the case during the
Sessions is too short, though the parties themselves
are generally satisfied by the rapidity with which justice
is administered." It was sought to remedy these
defects by allowing pleadings to be delivered in the
vacation, 2 by empowering the Courts to take the evidence
of witnesses on commission, 3 and by authorising the
justices in any county on their Circuit to make any
rules and orders in any suits within their jurisdiction,
and not merely in the county where the cause of action
had arisen, 4 and to hear motions and petitions in the
vacation. 5 The value of these provisions was ridiculed
by Lord Cawdor in his Letter. He was certainly right

1 Palmer, of the Carnarvon Circuit, expressly disagreed with
this view, and stated that compromises were frequent. See also
the address already cited of the Grand Jury of Anglesea. It
should be remembered also that at least one half of the actions
in Concessit Solvere never came to trial.

2 Sec. 8. 3 Sec. 9. 4 Sec. 11. 5 Sec. 12.

COURT OF GREAT SESSIONS : 1542-1830 177

in his reference to the difficulty of hearing motions,
etc., in vacation. One of the Carmarthen judges lived
in Derbyshire ; the other in London. It would be
somewhat difficult to bring them together, and there
was no power to compel them to make a Court. His
somewhat clumsy ridicule of the other remedies is
not convincing. The amendments must have sensibly
relieved both the tension of work during the Sessions
week, and it gave suitors time to consider their position
before their cases came to trial. There is no doubt
that in the purely rural counties a week was then, as
now, more than sufficient for the work, especially when
it is remembered that two Courts sat to try jury actions ;
but the Legislature thought, and rightly thought, that it
was more urgent to remove the well-founded grievances
of suitors than to effect a comparatively small economy
in public expenditure.

In other respects the Act of 1824 dealt directly and
specifically with the evils complained of.

(a) Fines and Recoveries. — The evidence clearly sup-
ported the finding of the Select Committee as to the
length of time sometimes required to suffer recoveries
and levy fines, as well as the magnitude and uncertainty
of the expense. But here, again, the evidence was con-
flicting. Mr. Justice Burton admitted that recoveries
could not be suffered except during the Sessions, i.e.
twice a year. But he added, " no more than they can
in England, except during the four terms." He was
constrained, however, to acknowledge that " it would
possibly be an improvement if recoveries were allowed to
be suffered at other periods before either of the Justices
in any place." Rees Goring Thomas, the " com-
pounder " of Carmarthen, stated that the expense of

W.M.W. m

178 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

levying a fine in South Wales was double that in North
Wales, while recoveries cost is. 4d., ad valorem, in
South Wales as against is. in North Wales. He went
on to say that the expense was considerably larger in
South Wales than in England, where the charge was
so much per messuage and not so much per acre. It was
mentioned that a recovery which cost only a few pounds
in Westminster might cost hundreds of pounds in
Wales.

Sec. 24 of the Act of 1824 enacted that " the fees to
be paid on any fine or recovery . . . and the amount
of the King's Silver to be paid thereon shall be in the
same proportion and ascertained and calculated in
the same manner by the proper officer " as in England,
and " shall not exceed the same." Sec. 26 directed
that fines should be levied four times a year after the
manner and on the dates mentioned in the section.
Sec. 28 authorised any person entitled to take affidavits
as a Commissioner of the Common Law Courts or a
Master Extraordinary of the Court of Chancery to
take any affidavit of any matter arising or fines and
recoveries levied or suffered in the Courts of Great
Sessions, in the same manner as was done in England.

In this way the peculiar grievance of Wales was swept
away. But in any event the cumbrous and expensive
system of fines and recoveries was hastening to its
close. Brougham indignantly inveighed against it in
his speech on Feb. 7, 1828.

" Every gentleman knows that if he has an estate
in fee he can sell it, or bestow it in any way he may
please, but if he has an estate tail, to which he succeeds
in the long vacation, he can go, on the first day of
Michaelmas term, and levy a fine, which destroys the

COURT OF GREAT SESSIONS : 1542-1830 179

expectant rights of the issue in tail ; or he may, by
means of a recovery, get rid of those rights and all
remainder over. . . . But this must be done through
the Court of Common Pleas at certain seasons of the
year. And why should there exist a necessity of going
there ? Why not, if it be necessary, pay the fines which
are due without going there at all ? Why force tenants
in tail into court for form's sake ? "

In the reign of William IV., within a few years after
the abolition of the Courts of Great Sessions, fines and
recoveries were done away with.

(b) The inability of the Courts to compel a witness
who lived outside the jurisdiction to attend the trial
was a serious defect, though it is likely that in actual
practice the inconvenience was not very great. Mr.
Justice Burton stated that he had never had to try the
experiment, and had never known any practical incon-
venience resulting from this want of power. Oldnall
Russell, though he denied the existence of any " dis-
advantages," agreed that there should be some means
of compelling the attendance of a witness resident in
England.

In order to remedy this state of things, Sec. 1 enacted
that on application by one of the parties to the Court of
Exchequer at Westminster, supported by a proper
affidavit, a writ of subpoena ad testificandum or subpoena
duces tecum would issue, directed to such witness,
whether resident in England or that part of Wales
outside the jurisdiction of the particular court where
the cause was being tried.

(c) The evidence given before the Select Committee
was not very strong with regard to the alleged incon-
venience resulting from the necessity of applying to the

180 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

Justices who had heard the case for a new trial. Indeed,
the experience of our modern County Courts, where a
similar practice prevails, is confirmatory of the statement
made by Benyon, the Attorney-General for the Chester
Circuit, that no such inconvenience was in practice
experienced. Oldnall Russell stated quite truly that
the motion for a new trial made before the same tribunal,
which already knew the facts on which the verdict was
given, made for expedition, " though," he added,
" another tribunal, if practicable, would be better."
Christopher Temple gave the only damaging evidence
against the practice when he said that he had " never
known a new trial granted in any of the three Welsh
places with which I am acquainted " (viz. Flint, Denbigh,
and Montgomery). His suggestion that the motion for
a new trial should be heard by four Welsh Judges in
London, including the Judge who tried the case, was
not accepted. Sec. 2 of the 1824 Act enacted that
the Courts of King's Bench, Common Pleas, and Ex-
chequer sitting in banco should have power, after hearing
the parties, to order a new trial or to enter judgment
for either party or to enter a non-suit, as the case might
be. Even Lord Cawdor, in his Letter, pays a grudging
tribute to the efficacy of this provision.

(d) The complaint that a person paying a sum of money
into Court had no security except the personal solvency
of the officers of the Court was well founded. No
witness who gave evidence before the Select Committee
endeavoured to defend the existing state of things.
Temple said that " we have no officer of the Court
with whom money can be safely lodged." Two remedies
were proposed in 1824. One was that the Justices
should have full power to dismiss all officers ' for

COURT OF GREAT SESSIONS : 1542-1830 181

peculation, extortion, or other misconduct," unless such
officer had been appointed by the Crown. 1 The following
section empowered the Justices to " have and take from
any officer of the Court within three calendar months
after his appointment and as often after as occasion
may require, such security as to such Justices shall
seem proper for and concerning the accounting for all
and every sum which such officer shall receive in any
cause." By Sec. 18 the Justices were authorised to
" order and direct any sum of money belonging to the
suitors to be paid into the Bank of England, in the
name and with the privity of the Accountant-General
of His Majesty's Court of Exchequer at Westminster."

Lord Cawdor made play with the fact that by 1828 not
a penny had been so paid into the Bank of England, but
he does not mention what had been done under Sec. 17,
and his silence as to this is significant.

There was one other defect in the jurisdiction of the
Welsh Courts which needs some attention in connection
with the Act of 1824, though it has already been referred
to. 2 That was the iniquitous practice, which had
grown up in the latter years of the eighteenth century,
for the Westminster Courts to remove actions com-
menced in the Courts of Great Sessions to the nearest
English county by the prerogative writ of certiorari.
The practice with regard to certiorari varied on different
Circuits. According to Mr. Justice Burton it was
almost unknown — or at least it was never countenanced
— on the Chester Circuit. He said : " Although there
is a maxim that the King's writ does not run into Wales,
yet this rule is not without exceptions. Prerogative
writs are those exceptions, and it has been laid down
1 Sec. 16. 2 Supra, p. 94.

182 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

more than once by Lord Mansfield and the Court of
King's Bench that a certiorari might be granted upon
motion in court on proof of a sufficient cause, such, for
instance, as that an impartial trial could not reasonably
be expected in the Welsh county. There is a case
upon this subject in Douglas's Reports. In point of
practice I do not immediately recollect any cause so
removed from our Circuit, though I do remember some
improper attempts to remove causes upon certiorari
unduly obtained, which we thought it our duty to
disregard."

Temple's recollection concurred with that of the
Judge. He stated that he had never known of any case
being removed from the Chester Circuit by certiorari.
" I have known," he added, " a certiorari tendered to
the Judges, but they have themselves had a concurrent
jurisdiction in all civil matters with the Judges at
Westminster Hall." He went on to give an instance
in point in an action brought by Sir Watkin Williams
Wynn against one Hughes, where Mr. Justice Burton
refused, citing the authority of Lord Kenyon, who
had been Chief Justice of Chester, to receive a
certiorari.

But what the Chief Justice of Chester, who may be
termed the head of the Welsh Judiciary, was able and
ready to do was not possible on some of the other Circuits.
Mr. Justice Heywood, of the Carmarthen Circuit, stated
that on one Circuit twenty-six causes were taken away
by certiorari, most or all of which might have been tried
in their course. The motions were always made for
the purposes of delay.

" I never remember an instance of its being moved on
the ground that the party was not likely to have a

COURT OF GREAT SESSIONS : 1542-1830 183

fair trial at the Great Sessions. 1 The defendant knows
that if the verdict is likely to go against him by the
judgment of the Sessions, execution would follow
immediately, and thereupon he removes the cause into
the King's Bench, which would give him six or eight
months' delay. The King's Bench could restrain the
abuse ; but in fact rules for certiorari are obtained
without any special showing."

The learned judge did not specify of what Circuit
he was speaking, but it is fairly certain that he was
not speaking of his own Carmarthen Circuit, which was
probably the most important of the purely Welsh
Circuits. Charles Morgan, Solicitor and Clerk of the
Peace of Carmarthen, stated in his evidence that he
had known of only two instances of rules of certiorari
issuing, and they had been quashed — presumably in
the same way as they had been blandly ignored by
the judges of the Chester Circuit.

It is difficult to see how the practice arose. Nothing
in the Act of 1542 warranted the action of the Courts
at Westminster. Practica Walliae knew nothing of
such a practice in 1672. It was an abuse which grew
up in the eighteenth century, when the jealousy and
hatred, which the Westminster Courts felt of old towards
the Council of the Marches, were transferred to the
local Welsh jurisdiction of the Great Sessions. The
fact that the Chester Justices were allowed to ignore,

1 I.e. the only cause justifying the grant of certiorari mentioned
by Lord Mansfield. One case is to be found in the books
(Daniel v. Phillips, 1792, 4 T.R. 499) where an action for less
than 40s. damages was removed by certiorari into the King's
Bench from the Carmarthen Great Sessions on the ground that
the Excise officers who formed one of the parties could not have
had an impartial trial in the local court.

184 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

and the Carmarthen Justices to quash, the writ is
eloquent of the precariousness of the position taken
up by the English Courts. But that this power, so
obtained, should be exercised " without any special
showing," was plainly intolerable. Sec. 23 of the
1824 Act enacted that in future " no writ of certiorari
shall be granted ... to remove any action, etc. . . .
originated or commenced ... in the Courts of Great
Sessions . . . unless seven days notice in writing (has
been given) to the other party . . . and unless the party
so applying shall, upon oath, show to the Court in
which application shall be made sufficient cause for
issuing such writ, and so that the (other) party . . . may
have an opportunity to show cause."

Sees. 19-22 dealt with another branch of the same
evil. 13 George III., c. 51 (Rice's Act) had attempted
to stay the nuisance and scandal of plaintiffs bringing
actions against the defendants resident in Wales " in
the English county next adjoining," which meant
Shropshire and Herefordshire. The practice had been
so abused that, as has been seen, in 1773 it was enacted
that if a plaintiff recovered less than £10 in a personal
action in an English Court while the defendant resided
in Wales and the cause of action arose there, he should
be non-suited with costs. The Act of 1824 raised the
limit from £10 to ^o. 1

Lord Cawdor cordially disliked this provision, which
had, according to him, the effect of largely increasing
the work of the Court of Great Sessions, and of causing
much congestion of business.

It became apparent during the latter years of the
eighteenth century that the doom of the Court of Great

1 Sec. 21.

COURT OF GREAT SESSIONS : 1542-1830 185

Sessions was sealed. In vain its lovers strove to reform
its procedure and to correct its abuses. It was pursued
with relentless hostility. Its process was at least as
cheap, as speedy, and as effective as that of the Courts
at Westminster. Its system of pleading was less subtle,
intricate, and technical. It knew nothing of the sordid
fictions of the law, which had sprung up in England
in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, such as
the latitat of the King's Bench and the quo minus of
the Exchequer. But, ever since the abolition of its
sister Court at Ludlow, it had occupied an anomalous
position. In 1780 Burke projected a comprehensive
plan of economical reform. One of the five Bills in
which his plan was incorporated was one " for the more
perfectly uniting to the Crown the Principality of Wales
and the County Palatine of Chester, and for the more
commodious administration of justice within the same."
His original plan was not to abolish but to reform
the Welsh jurisdiction, and to reduce the number of
judges from eight to three. He modified his plan
later on. But his campaign was more one of economy
than of legal reform. In 1798 a Select Committee of
the House of Commons on the finance of Courts of
Justice recommended the " gradual consolidation of the
four judicatures of Wales into one Circuit ... so as to
have an additional number of English Judges." Ten
years later an additional £3200 a year was granted
in salaries to the Welsh Judges. In 1817 the Com-
mittee was " persuaded that the present establishment
of the Welsh Judicature, notwithstanding some imper-
fections, has much to recommend it, from the cheapness
and expedition with which it administers justice to
the inhabitants of the Principality." But the point

186 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

of view was changed by 1821, when it reported : " How-
ever well adapted these Courts may have been in their
origin to the circumstances of a country newly subdued,
in which the English language was at that time almost
unknown; having little or no means of communication
with the seats of justice in England, and liable to all
the jealousies inspired by recent enmity, that the lapse
of years, and the great changes that have taken place
in the condition of Wales, have removed most of, if
not all, the reasons on account of which the institution
of local jurisdictions were resorted to."

They repeat some of the points made in the previous
Report, and they add others. The main defects of the
Courts have already been dealt with. The Act of 1824
removed some of the most serious of them. But Lord
Cawdor returned to the charge in 1828. The three
remaining defects which he emphasised were :

(i) The Welsh Judges had too much to do at some
Sessions and too little in others.

It is worthy of note that a similar allegation is made
to-day against the Circuit system.

(ii) The Welsh Judges were too highly paid for their
work.

But their salaries had been more than doubled in the
course of the previous fifty-five years, and if the salaries
were too high, the remedy was obvious.

(iii) The cost of the processes in the Welsh Courts
was very much in excess of the cost of similar pro-
ceedings at Westminster.

The evidence given before the Committee did not
support this allegation. The one exception to the rule
that Welsh processes were cheaper than English was
the cost of levying fines and suffering recoveries, but

COURT OF GREAT SESSIONS : 1542-1830 187

that had been put right by the Act of 1824. It should
also be noted that Lord Cawdor did not pretend to
speak from personal experience of the Courts. He had
only the evidence given before the Select Committee
to go upon, and that evidence does not bear out his
allegation. 1

Lord Chancellor Lyndhurst, who had himself served
as Chief Justice of Chester, appointed a Commission 2 to
inquire and report upon the judicial system. It was ap-
pointed as the result of a six hours' speech by Brougham
on the abuses and defects of the Courts on February y,
1828. The first Report of the Commissioners dealt
chiefly with the Welsh Judicature. It had examined
no witnesses, but founded its recommendations on the
Reports and evidence of the Select Committee 1817-1821.
It recommended the extension of the jurisdiction of

1 E.g. Benyon, Attorney-General for Chester, stated that the
equitable jurisdiction was " rather expeditious than otherwise,
particularly when I contrast it with what happens in London.
The expense of a suit in a Welsh equitable Court was considerably
less." Heywood said of the equitable jurisdiction that it was
'* a cheaper, more convenient, and more satisfactory mode of
obtaining the object on account of its being nearer home than
the equity Courts in this country." Temple said that the
" equitable jurisdiction of the Court is infinitely less expensive
than it is in England ; its quickness as well as its cheapness are
its great recommendations ; in some cases the party is able
to obtain a decree in one Session, or at all events he is sure of it
in the next Session." Freshfield, of Kaye, Freshfield and Kaye,
Solicitors to the Bank of England, stated : "I should prefer
lending on Welsh security ... on account of the greater facility of
foreclosure. In Wales we get it in the first Session ; in England in
five or six years." It was universally admitted that for cheapness
and expedition it was impossible to surpass the action of concessit
solvere. The Select Committee reported in 181 7 that the Welsh
process was cheaper than the English, and the subsequent evidence
only served to support that conclusion.

2 The Commissioners were Sergeants Bosanquet and H. J.
Stephen, E. Hall Alderson, James Parke, and John Patteson.

188 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

the superior courts of England to Chester and Wales,
the appointment of three additional judges, and the
abolition of the Court of Great Sessions. 1

The Government adopted the principal recommenda-
tions of the Commissioners. On March 9th, 1830, the
Attorney-General, Sir J. Scarlett, moved for leave to
bring in " a Bill for the more effectual administration
of Justice in England and Wales " embodying the main
features of the Commissioners' plan. On the same
night the Hon. Rice Trevor, M.P. for Carmarthenshire,
presented a petition from the freeholders of the county. 2
The petition stated that the " Welsh law . . . was in
fact the old English law differently, and in some respects
better, administered." Sir John Owen, M.P. for
Pembrokeshire, presented a petition from between
1800 and 1900 freeholders of the County of Pembroke,
and John Jones, M.P. for the Carmarthen Boroughs,
a petition from the Sheriff, Magistrates, and Burgesses
of Carmarthen and Kidwelly, protesting against the
proposal to abolish the Courts of Great Sessions. The
Member for Carmarthen made the first of a series of
speeches against the Bill. He trusted that no attempt

1 Some of the proposals made by the Commissioners would
never have been made if they had examined witnesses. They
overrode all national and local divisions. Wales as a legal
entity was to be eliminated. Part of Montgomery was to be
attached to the Shrewsbury Court, Denbigh and Flint to Chester,
Radnor to Hereford, the Glamorgan Assizes were to be taken
from Cardiff and held at Neath, and South Wales was to be
added to the Oxford Circuit. Fortunately the Government
refused to accept these suggestions.

2 Very interesting reports of meetings held in Carmarthen
and Pembroke in 1820 are given in the first volume of the Cambro-
Briton (pp. 396 and 439), which show that while Welshmen were
fully alive to the defects of the Courts of Great Sessions, they
desired and demanded their reform and not their abolition.

COURT OF GREAT SESSIONS : 1542-1830 189

would be made, as had been threatened, to hurry the
Bill through the House before Easter. He looked
upon the proposed plan as an untried experiment, of
which the good was doubtful, and before it was carried
into execution, he wished that the Bill should be printed
and circulated in Wales for at least a twelvemonth.
The Welsh had not complained of the present system.
It had been said that whether the Welsh liked the
measure or not they would have to swallow it. He
complained that the nature of the Bill had been kept
as secret from those it was to affect as if it were a State
mystery. Col. Powell, M.P., presented another similar
petition from Cardiganshire.

The motion of the Attorney-General to bring in the
Bill was opposed by O'Connell as the Bill would be
useless to the public, and by Sir J. Owen, M.P. for
Pembrokeshire. John Jones made another strong
speech against the measure. " It is hard," he said,
" that the interests of Wales should be made the ladder
by which ambitious barristers are to climb to such
preferment as three additional seats on the Bench. It
is admitted on all hands that the Welsh are attached to
their present institutions. . . . All the petitions except
one are against the measure." After a brief and per-
functory debate, the motion was agreed to without a
division, and the Bill was read a first time." 1

The second reading was taken on April 27th. Frank-
land Lewis, M.P. for Radnorshire, and Col. Wood,
M.P. for Breconshire, criticised the Bill. The Member
for Carmarthen made another outspoken attack. He
accused the Commissioners of being completely ignorant
of Wales and its inhabitants ; he complained of the
1 Hansard (2nd series) Par. Deb. vol. xxiii. col. 54.

igo THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

unfair treatment of him and other Welshmen who
had assisted them ; two of the Commissioners were
Sergeants-at-Law, and were therefore prejudiced ; 1 last
year £13,000 had been recovered in the Carmarthen Great
Sessions at a cost of £5, and he again insisted that there
was no demand for the Bill in Wales. C. W. Wynn,
M.P. for Montgomery, was the only Welsh Member
who spoke for the Bill. The Hon. Rice Trevor urged
that the Bill would entail great additional expense on
Welsh suitors. After a short reply from the Attorney-
General, the Bill was read a second time without a
division.

The Bill passed speedily through Committee, but was
recommitted on June 18th. On the same date J. Jones
presented a petition against the abolition of the Welsh
Courts, from Welshmen residing in and near London.
He pointed out that in England it was not worth while
to sue for less than £50 ; in Wales there was seldom a
claim over that amount, while the costs were only £1.
Again, sham pleas were unknown in Wales, because all
the pleadings were regulated by the Justices, and every
plea had to be verified on oath. Harvey, M.P., seconded.
On July 2nd, the Bill went through Committee, and
on July 17th it was read a third time. It passed through
the House of Lords in spite of the objection of Lord
Eldon, and in due course it became law. The preamble
of 1 Will. IV., c. 70, does not disguise the object of the
enactment :

" Whereas the appointment of an additional Judge
to each of His Majesty's Courts of Common Law would

1 Because the Sergeants had no monopoly of promotion to the
judicial bench in Wales as they had in England. It is curious
that four out of the five Commissioners were subsequently pro-
moted to the Bench.

COURT OF GREAT SESSIONS : 1542-1830 191

cause much greater facility and despatch of business
therein : and whereas it is expedient to put an end
to the separate jurisdiction for the County Palatine
of Chester and the Principality of Wales."

The Welsh Judicature fell a victim, not to its own
defects, which were being gradually remedied, but to
the desire of English lawyers to have three additional
judges on the High Court Bench. Can anyone read
Brougham's famous speech and contemplate without
apprehension the substitution of the system which he
so unsparingly condemned for the Welsh system with
all its drawbacks ? Additional judges were no doubt
necessary for England, and fewer judges could do the
work satisfactorily in Wales with a better arrangement
of terms. Brougham asked for two additional judges,
for he said that " the Judges of the Court of Exchequer
do not sit for more than half an hour some mornings
and there are hardly ever on the paper more than 6 or
7 causes for trial after term. A dozen would be con-
sidered a large entry." But the English Bar demanded
an additional judge for each of the Westminster Courts,
and they got them at the expense of the Welsh Judica-
ture. Oldnall Russell had replied to the demand in
advance.

' It is said that a benefit would be derived to the
public from the services of the two or three English
judges, whom it would be necessary to appoint. . . .
But it may be doubted whether considerations of this
kind can properly be brought to bear upon the question.
... It does not seem too much to assume that the
present inquiry should be made principally, if not
entirely, with a reference to benefits and advantages
to be derived to the people of Wales, to whose suit

192 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

English laws and the Courts of Great Sessions were
conceded, and amongst whose rights and privileges the
jurisdiction of these courts, according to their present
establishment, must be enumerated." x

The Courts of Great Sessions were, however, abolished
in 1830, and the English Circuit system took its place.
Wales and Cheshire were formed into two Circuits, the
North Wales and Chester Circuit, and the South Wales
and Chester Circuit. The change was opposed by all
the Welsh Members of Parliament, with one exception.
It was protested against by the vast majority of judges,
counsel, attorneys, and suitors who were called upon
to give evidence ; with one exception every petition
presented to Parliament was adverse to the proposed
abolition of the Courts. During the last eighty years
Wales, from being a poor and sparsely populated country,
has become rich and populous. The introduction of
County Courts in 1846, the various Summary Juris-
diction Acts, and the Judicature Act of 1873 have
effected great and vital reforms in our system of ad-
ministering justice. It is therefore true to say to-day
that Wales does not suffer more than other parts of
the country from the defects of the English judicial
system. But the economic, industrial and juridical
revolution which has taken place during the last two
generations should not blind us to the real nature of
the danger so recklessly incurred in 1830. They have
been admirably summed up by a modern historian who
is also a lawyer. 2

" For some years the Act inflicted considerable

1 Russell's Practice, Intro, p. xxxvi.

2 Sir D. Brynmor- Jones, K.C., in Rhys and Jones's The Welsh
People, at pp. 391-2.

COURT OF GREAT SESSIONS : 1542-1830 193

hardship on Welsh suitors. There being no County
Courts on the modern basis till the Act of 1846 had
passed, and the local courts having only jurisdiction
up to 40s., 1 it was necessary to bring an action in London
even to recover trivial debts, and as the local equitable
jurisdiction had been determined, the administration
of the smallest estate had to be effected through the
medium of the Court of Chancery. The proceedings,
too, in an action commenced in a Superior Court and
tried at a Welsh Assize, were much more dilatory
and expensive than those in a suit of the same kind in
the Great Sessions. Again, though the Welsh Justices
were not the equals of the English Justices in status
at the Bar, or, as a rule, in legal attainments, they
came in a little time after their appointments into
close touch with the people and generally secured their
confidence. For many years the want of sympathy
of the English Judges going the Welsh Circuits, their
ill-concealed assumption that Welshmen were beings
inferior to Englishmen, their apparent total inability
to understand that a man who could speak a few words
of a foreign language in a market place or society might
decline to give evidence in it in a Court of Justice and
yet be an honest man, produced very often great popular
(though in those days not overt) indignation, and
sometimes grave miscarriage of justice. The establish-
ment of the modern County Courts, and the gentler and
more tactful treatment of Welsh witnesses by the Judges
of the High Court during recent years, have done much
to remove any grievances special to the people of Wales
in regard to the administration of justice."

1 But see 12 George I., c. 29, and 19 George III., c. 70, and
51 George III., s. 124.

W.M.W. N

194 THE MAKiNG OF MODERN WALES

It might be added that in 1830 the practice of the
English Courts was unre formed. The terrors of " mesne
process " so vividly described by Brougham were still
present ; arrest and outlawry still threatened the
defendant ; all manner of stupid legal fictions pre-
vailed ; the system of pleading and procedure was
overrun with technicalities. When the old system of
the Welsh Courts, so cheap and expeditious, is remem-
bered, it may be doubted if Wales would not have fared
better if her historical Judicature had been reformed
of its defects, instead of being abolished in order that
a more cumbrous, costly and technical system might
take its place. The simplification of pleading and
procedure during the last forty-two years has been a
notable feature of legal reform, but the attempt made
in 1873 to amalgamate law and equity has largely
failed, and even the procedure in our commercial courts,
direct and non-technical as it is, falls short of the sweet
simplicity of the old Concessit Solvere.

CHAPTER V

THE REFORMATION

It is a commonplace of history that the Reformation
was not welcomed in Wales. Thomas Cromwell, it is
true, found ready agents among Welsh lawyers and
clergy to do his iconoclastic work, but the people looked
on in sullen anger while the image of Dervel Gadarn
was sacrilegiously torn from its shrine, 1 and the altar
of Dewi Sant was stripped for the benefit of a renegade
bishop. 2 Chapuys, the Imperial Ambassador at the
Court of Henry VIIL, constantly refers to the Princi-
pality as being passionately loyal to the old faith, 3 and
Catholic plotters for two generations invariably took
into account, in estimating their chances of success,

1 State Papers, Henry VIII. (1538), vol. xiii. pt. i. Nos. 649..
863-4 I Ellis's Orig. Letters, 1st series, ii. 82 ; 3rd series, iii. 194 ;
Arch. Camb. 4th series, v. 152.

2 Ibid. vol. xiii. pt. i. No. 634 ; Wright's Suppression of the
Monasteries (Camd. Society), 190, 77, 183, 186, 206, and 187 ; and
also Edward Owen's Catalogue of Welsh MSS. in British Museum,
105a and b ; 140, and 167 (a.d. 1611).

3 " As to the indisposition of the people of Wales, of which
mention is made ... I understand they are very angry at the
ill-treatment of the Queen (Catherine) and Princess (Mary) and
also at what is done against the faith, for they have always been
good Christians " (State Papers, Henry VIII., Nov. 3rd, 1533,
vol. vii. No. 1368).

195

196 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

the unswerving devotion of Welshmen to the See of
Rome. 1

Relics of ancient Catholic practices and beliefs have
survived to our own days. Mari Lwyd still cheers the
winter nights of rural Wales, though few know that it
represents the mystery play of " Holy Mary." Children,
the truest conservatives, even yet make the sign of the
cross when seeking to avert an evil omen or taking upon
themselves a binding oath. The " gwylnos " survives,
in Puritan setting, to mark the permanence in the human
heart of that pathetic care for the departed which gave
rise in ancient times to the practice of saying masses for
the dead. The beautiful custom of strewing flowers on
the graves of friends and relatives on " Sul y Blodau "
testifies to the abiding, if unconscious, influence of
Catholicism on the faith and practices of Welshmen.
These are small matters, it may be, but that they have
survived at all, after two centuries and more of the
sternest and straitest Puritan discipline, is surely sig-
nificant of the strong hold which the old faith had taken
on the Welsh people. 2

Extreme Protestants as Welshmen have now become,
it is beyond question that, up to the great Rebellion,

1 Vide, for example, Parsons' letter to the Cardinal of Como in
1 58 1, where he suggests that Dr. Owen Lewis should be sent
to raise Wales, because of his influence " with his countrymen
the Welsh, who can be of much service in this affair, and will
desire to help from the great affection which they bear to the
Catholic faith ; and when the army has reached England, then
Dr. Owen might be sent to Wales with the great lords of that
country, who already favour us, to help in raising the people
of those parts " (5. P.O., " Roman Transcripts," vol. xv. No. 477).
Cf. also Acts of the Privy Council, vol. xiii. p. 428.

2 Cf. Life and Letters of Laud ; Erasmus Saunders, View of the
State of Religion in St. David's (1721) ; Strype's Eccles. Memorials,
ii- 357 \ J- Lewis (Glasgrug), Contemplation of these Times,

THE REFORMATION 197

Wales was the most Catholic portion of Great Britain.
The whole of Wales only produced three Protestant
martyrs in the reign of Mary. 1 The mass of the people
were indisposed to accept the new-fangled doctrines
either of Wittenberg or of Geneva. " The Welsh coun-
ties tell (the Earl of) Pembroke," wrote the Duke de
Feria to his master, Philip of Spain, in the first year of
Elizabeth, " to send no preachers across the marches,
or they will not return alive." 2 John Penry, the pro-
totype of the strenuous Welsh Nonconformist, was
brought up on the hillsides of Eppynt in the Catholic
religion, and it was only after he had gone to Cambridge
that he came under the influence of Protestantism. 3

Catholicism stood for more than the old religion ; it
stood also for Welsh nationality. Protestantism was an
alien plant, fostered by English or Anglicised officials.
Men looked back to pre-Reformation days as a time
when Wales was not a mere part of England, when the
Welsh language was not tabooed in the courts, and when
Welsh laws and customs were still observed. 4 All that

1 Rees's History of Protestant Nonconformity in Wales, p. 3.
Only one, however, Bishop Ferrar, seems to have been of Welsh
blood.

2 Simancas MSS., quoted byFroude, Hist, of England, vol. vi. 190.

3 Born 1559. Vide Rees's History of Protestant Noncon f ormity in
Wales, p. 20. In 1569 the Spanish Ambassador said that Wales
was " for the most part mainly Catholic " (S.P., Spanish, ii. 147).
See also Owen's Welsh MSS. in the Brit. Mus. i. 72.

4 " The distress of the people is incredible, and the anxiety
they have to declare themselves, especially the Welsh, from whom
by Act of Parliament the King has just taken away their native
laws, customs, and privileges, which is the very thing they can
endure least patiently " (Chapuys, Dec. 19th, 1534 >' Staie Papers,
Henry VIII., vol. vii. 1554). Cf. the petition sent to the Privy
Council in 1558 " on the behalf of the inhabitants of Wales and
the County Pellentyne of Chester for their auntient hbertyes and
customes to be allowed," in Acts of the Privy Council, vii. 64-5.

198 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

was best and noblest in Welsh story was intertwined
with the history of the roofless abbeys, which remain to
this day monuments of Welsh piety and art. Strata
Florida and Aberconway, in their ruins, still testified to
the dream of Welsh independence which had inspired
the waking thoughts, and directed the policy, of the
princes who sleep in peace in their solitude ; Valle
Crucis and Tintern embodied in their deathless beauty
the finest and most spiritual aspirations of the Cymry ;
Carmarthen and Talley had given refuge and solace to
the greatest Welsh bards, when stricken with age and
poverty ; Margam and Neath, Basingwerk, Cymmer,
and Strata Marcella — every monastery was a museum
stored with priceless treasures of Welsh poetry and
romance. 1 Each parish church, called after a native
saint who had no place or meaning in the Protestant
economy, led the Welsh mind, with its insistence on the
living influence of the past, back to the earliest dawn of
Christian civilisation in the land. 2 Everywhere within

1 See e.g. Hen Gwndidau, by Hopcyn and Cadrawd, which
teems with allusions to the loss sustained by the bards through
the destruction of the monasteries. Lleision Cradoc bewails the
destruction of Margam Abbey in the following striking stanzas
(pp. xx. xxi.):

Margam, gwae in am ergyd -a gavas

Mae gofal yn aethlyd,

Doe bu myned a'i bywyd.

• — Diffodd gardd y ffydd i gyd.

I'ble 'dda Bardd hardd ei hirddysg -bellach
E ballawdd nawdd i'n mysg.
Trwm ar ein iaith ywr trymysg,
Trais rhyfedd a diwedd dysg !

2 Cf. Griffith Roberts's preface toy Drych Cristionogawl (1585) :
' Mae'n rhaid ir gwledydd eraill enwi y rhann fwayaf oe Heglwysi
ar henw un or Postolion neu Saint ereill, ny bythont yn perthyn
idd eu gwlad nhyw ; ond drwy holl Gymry ni cheir nemor o
eglwys ond ar enw saint y wlad."

THE REFORMATION 199

sound of the monastic bell there had reigned peace and
contentment. 1 The Church had given free education
to the brightest sons of the poor, it had dispensed its
kindly charity in the homes of the aged. There was no
need for free schools, or for the workhouse — that hideous
creation of Protestant charity. The abbey and glebe
lands were well tilled by tenants who held on easy terms.
Divided though Welshmen were, and fierce as had been
their provincial jealousies, they had all united in one
common worship, and Dewi Sant was in very truth the
Patron of Wales, the one common pride and common
heritage of the whole race.

Yn Nyffryn Clwyd nid oes
Dim ond darn bach o'r groes
Oedd gynt yn golofn ar las fedd ;

but that fragment of the cross served to remind genera-
tions of Welshmen of the link which bound them to
their historic past.

With the Reformation came strange doctrines and
strange laws. Gone were the kindly landlords of the
monastery, and in their place stood needy adventurers,
unmindful of the past and uncertain of the future, only

1 How far this aspect of Catholicism appealed — and still
appeals — to the Welsh mind, finds a curious illustration in the
lines which Glasynys, one of the most typical Cymric poets of
the last century, wrote in his beautiful Llyn y Morwynion :

Mynachlog neu ysbytty, mor swynol swn dy gloch !

Mae'n seinio dros y cymoedd 'yn iach, yn iach y boch'

Mor hyfryd i'r pererin ar ol ei ludded maith

Fydd clywed clir wahoddiad hon i orffwys ar ei daith ;

Ceiff yma gartref tawel ; a phawb fydd yma'n frawd

Yn ceisio dysgu'r naill y Hall i wrthladd byd a'r cnawd,

Yr oriau gedwir yma i ymbil am y rhad,

A gluda'r egwan, cr mor llesg, i dawel dy ei Dad.

Ty gweddi, — ty elusen — ty cariad, — cennad lor —

Na foed i'r aberth bythol mwy gael gwawd o fewn dy gor !

200 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

anxious to make the most of the present. Gone was
the free education given by the religious houses, and
it was only inadequately replaced by that of new
and meagrely endowed grammar schools, called after
Edward VI. and Elizabeth. Gone, too, was that perfect
organisation which gave a priest to every parish ; for
generations, and even centuries, clerical pluralists
devoured the substance of the Church, while " the
hungry sheep looked up, and were not fed." x Nor
could the married clergy, with heavy domestic claims
on attenuated incomes, afford to distribute alms with
the bounteous generosity of the old priests. Church-
wardens came to be elected to look after the poor ; and
when compulsory almsgiving in church had failed of its
purpose, the Parliament of Elizabeth added the Poor-
Rate and the Poorhouse to our national institutions.
With the political change which turned the old Welsh
chiefs into modern English landlords, and drove the
ancient tongue of Wales out of court and hall, came
the religious change which transformed Dervel Gadarn
into a Philistine Dagon, and Dewi Sant into a fable of
the priests or an object of idolatrous worship.

No one who knows Wales and Welshmen will be
surprised that such a violent revolution was strongly,
if tacitly, resented. The Anglicised gentry and inter-

1 Rees's Protest. Nonconformity in Wales, p. 5 ; John Penry's
Exhortation, p. 31 ; Walker's Sufferings of the Clergy, pt. ii.
Cf . Erasmus Saunders (Dedication of View of the State of Religion
in the Diocese of St. David's, p. 6) : "It will be a spectacle
still more moving, to see as it were the whole frame of our religion
sinking, to see many parishes without churches, many churches
without pastors, and many pastors without a maintenance."
Vide also ib. pp. 53 seq. Saunders, of course, refers to the state
of the Established Church in the early years of the eighteenth
century.

THE REFORMATION 201

ested officials might accede to, though even they did not
welcome, the change ; but the people silently clung to
the old faith, and although with each succeeding genera-
tion their knowledge of Catholic doctrine and practice
grew less, 1 in heart and soul they remained, until the
Puritan movement stirred the profoundest emotions of
their nature, loyal to the ancient faith of their fore-
fathers. It is strange that, while this fact is clearly
recognised by historians, no attempt should have been
made hitherto to trace the efforts of Welsh Catholics to
keep alive the flame on the altar. The reason for this
omission is, perhaps, not far to seek. Welshmen, under
the influence of Protestantism, have been more con-
cerned to discover the origin and to trace the develop-
ment of Puritanism, than to ascertain the stages in the
decay of Catholicism in Wales. Catholic historians, on
the other hand, have never, seemingly, been able to
appreciate the fact that Wales is as distinct from Eng-
land as Ireland or Scotland. 2 The heroic labours of

1 See, e.g., the description given by Griffith Roberts, in his
Introduction to the Drych Cristionogawl (1585), of the state
of ignorance of the younger generation : " Myfi a glowa fod
ami leoedd yn ghymbry, ie, siroedd cyfan, neb un Cristion
ynddynt, yn byw mal anifeilieid, y rhan fwyaf o honynt heb
wybod dim oddiwrth ddaioni, ond ci bod yn unig yn dala henw
Crist yn ei cof." Cf. Rhosier Smith's dedication of his Catechism
(161 1). See also a curious account given in Baily's Apophthegms
of the Marquis of Worcester of the life of an old Catholic Welsh-
woman, who was living near Strata Florida in 1642.

2 Though this difference is ignored by modern Catholic his -
torians, it was ever present in the minds of Catholics in the six-
teenth century. Cf. e.g., Cardinal Sega's report in 1.596, as to the
Roman dissensions, where he refers to Dr. Morris as a Welshman,
'' the native of a country distinct from England, and differing
from it in no slight degree as to manners, characteristics, and
language " (Foley's Engl. Jesuits, vol. vi.). Cf. also "Causae quare
scholares Angli tantum abhorrent a regimine D. Mauritii, et
Archidiaconi Cameracensi, qui quaerunt eis dominari " (1578-9),

202 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

Welsh priests in the mission field, the torture and
martyrdom of some, the life-long exile of others, have
not been put down to the credit of Wales, but have
been indiscriminately reckoned as part of the history
of English Catholicism. I purpose, in this chapter, to
make an attempt to trace for the first time the part
which Welshmen played, and the influence they exerted,
on what is called the Counter-Reformation.

In the year 1568, ten years after the accession of
Elizabeth, there dwelt in the university town of Douay,
in Belgium, three old Oxford men, exiles for conscience'
sake. Two of them were Welshmen, the third was an
Englishman. The oldest of the three was Dr. Morgan
Phillips, 1 a native of Monmouthshire, who had earned
for himself the title of " Morgan the Sophister " in the
halls of Oxford, and who had been Precentor of St.
David's Cathedral. 2 His countryman was Dr. Owen

which is given in the Appendix to the second volume of Dodd's
Church History, No. lix. But if one wants to have an instance
how the industrious learning of a historian can be used uncon-
sciously to pervert the real facts (as to the consequences of racial
antagonism of Welsh and English) I commend the reader to
Arnold Oskar Meyer's England and the Catholic Church under
Queen Elizabeth (tr. M'Kee, publ. Kegan Paul, 191 6).

1 Dr. Morgan Phillips matriculated at Oxford in 1533, in 1538
he was elected Fellow of Oriel College, and in 1546 he became
Principal of St. Mary's Hall, a post which he filled till 1550,
when he resigned. He was, like most of the Welsh Catholics, a
zealous supporter of Mary Stuart, and in 1571 wrote a Defence
of the Honour of Mary, Queen of Scotland, which was published
in Douay. For further particulars of his life, see Husenbeth's
English Colleges on the Continent, Wood's Athanae Oxoniensis,
and Williams's Eminent Welshmen.

2 Previous to 1840 the Precentor was head of the Chapter of
St. David's. In that year, a Dean was first appointed. {Vide
Mr. Arthur Price's article on " Wales," in the Encyclopaedia
of the Laws of England.) Phillips was made Precentor in 1553,
but left for Douay on the accession of Elizabeth.

THE REFORMATION 203

Lewis, the son of an Anglesea squire, who had been
educated at Winchester and New College, Oxford. 1 He
had resigned his Fellowship soon after the accession of
Elizabeth, and in 1561, being then in the twenty-eighth
year of his age, he had been appointed Regius Professor
of Civil Law at the University of Douay. His learning
and scholarship, his conciliatory temper and sane judg-
ment, obtained for him speedy promotion, and in a
short time he became Canon of Cambray and Archdeacon
of Hainault. The third, whose fame has obscured the
achievements of his friends, was Dr. William Allen, the
scion of a good Lancashire family, the pupil of " Morgan
the Sophister " at Oriel, and sometime Principal of St.
Mary's Hall, Oxford. 2

The three were fast friends, and we may be certain
that they often and anxiously discussed the religious
condition of England. By 1568 all hope of the conver-
sion of Elizabeth to Catholicism had been abandoned.
Mary, Queen of Scots, the Catholic claimant to the suc-
cession to the English throne, had taken refuge from her
rebellious subjects in England. Nor was the prospect in
other directions less gloomy. " Never," says a recent
writer, in reference to the first years of Elizabeth, " had

1 Dr. Owen Lewis was born in Bodeon, Llangadwaladr (or
Llanveirian) , in Anglesea, on December 28th, 1533. He became
Fellow of New College in 1553, and graduated B.C.L. in 1558.
See article, sub tit. (which is incorrect, however, in many par-
ticulars), in the Dictionary of National Biography ; Williams's
Eminent Welshmen ; Dodd's Church History, vol. ii. ; Kirby's
Winchester Scholars, p. 127 ; Boase's Oxford University Register,
i. 239.

Mn a letter which Parsons wrote from Rome to Dr. Allen
at Rheims in 1579, -he calls Lewis " the great friend " of Allen
(Knox, Letters of Cardinal Allen, ii. 74). See also Dr. Allen's
letter to Dr. O. Lewis, May 12th, 1579. Allen did not finally
leave England till 1565.

204 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

a church so completely gone down before the first blow
of opposition. Some 9000 parish priests were content,
with good or bad consciences, to read the Book of
Common Prayer, and to preserve their livings. Several
of their former Bishops were dead, others were in prison
or on parole or fugitives abroad. There was no attempt
on the part of Rome to fill up vacant sees or to provide
ecclesiastical organisation or government. . . The laity at
home were left without pastors, guides, or instruction." *
The three exiles at Douay determined to fill this want,
and to supply the Catholic laity in England with " pas-
tors, guides, and instruction." In 1568 Dr. William
Allen founded the famous Seminary of Douay, 2 for the
training of priests for the English Mission, with the
pecuniary help of Morgan Phillips and the active encour-
agement — perhaps with the material assistance — of Owen
Lewis. 3 It was Phillips that purchased the house where
the students first met, 4 and it was through his pos-
thumous generosity — he died in 1577, leaving all his
possessions to the Seminary — that the College was able

1 Law's Conflicts of Jesuits and Seculars, p. 7.

^In 1578 it was transferred from Douay to Rheims, where it
remained till 1593. In that year it returned to Douay, and
remained there till the end of the eighteenth century.

3 Owen Lewis did undoubtedly help the English College at
Rome in later years. A suggestion is made in a letter written
from Rome in 1579 to Dr. Allen, in Rheims, by Haddock, one of
the English students, which seems to show that Dr. Lewis helped
the Douay College also with his purse. " When it was said that
he (i.e. Owen Lewis) would get no Englishmen (to the Roman
College), he said that you (Dr. Allen) should either send him
some, or he would send you no money " (Dodd, vol. ii. p. cccl. seq.)
Cf. his epitaph (Knox, Records, ii. 448) : Ejus in primis oper
hujus collegii Duacensis et Rhemensis fundamenta facta sunt.

4 Dodd, Church History, ii. 100.

THE REFORMATION 205

to extend its activity. 1 The object of the founders was
religious and not political. They trained men to save
souls, not to overturn thrones and dynasties. In the
first ten years of the Seminary's existence, Dr. Allen
sent over as many as a hundred priests to England.
They were quiet, earnest and devoted men, not given
to blowing of trumpets or to boasting of their good
work. Some of them, like John Bennett, of Flint, 2 and
Robert Gwinn, 3 went back to labour in Wales. The
Government did not, except in times of political excite-
ment, interfere with them, and the early Seminarists were
free from political taint or suspicion of active disloyalty,
because the founders of the College of Douay for many
years kept themselves clear of political intrigues. 4

1 Knox, Records, i. 5, 10 c.d. In 1577 Gregory XIII. granted
it an annual pension of 1200 gold scudi (Dodd-Tierney, ii. App.
No. lii.).

2 Father John Bennett, alias Price, alias Floyd, alias Baker,
the son of Hugh John Bennett, of Brin Canellan, Flint, was
born in 1548. He went to Rheims in Aug. 1577 (Knox, Records,
vol. i. 128), and returned to Wales in 1580, " because there were
few or none that rightly executed the functions of true priests
in the country of Wales." He was apprehended in 1582, tortured,
and sent to perpetual banishment in 1583. Two years later
he went to Rheims, and at length " going from thence, he entered
into the Society of Jesus " in 1586. He returned to his former
mission in 1590, and died of the plague in London in 1625.
This John Bennett should be distinguished from another of the
same name, also a native of Flint, who was prominent in the
Wisbeach stirs and Archpriest controversy. See Foley's Jesuits,
vii. 50 ; Challoner's Missionary Priests, i. 416.

3 Robert Gwinn (Oxf. 1568, Douay, 157 1) is said not only to
have laboured in Wales, but to have written several books in
Welsh, and to have translated Parsons' Christian Directory or
Llyjr y Resolution. Vide Williams's Eminent Welshmen and
Wood's Athenae Oxoniensis.

4 From 1574 onwards great numbers of Seminarists went to
England from Douay and the other colleges. That their minis-
trations were in the main religious, and although sometimes

206 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

The success of the Douay Seminary led to the estab-
lishment ten years later, in 1578, of an English College
at Rome. Some years before, Owen Lewis, now Arch-
deacon of Hainault, had occasion to go to Rome in
connection with a lawsuit in which the Chapter of
Cambray were involved. He speedily gained the con-
fidence of the Pope, Gregory XIII. Cardinal Carlo
Borromeo, the saintly Archbishop of Milan, admitted
him into his intimacy, and when the appointed time
came for the saint to lay down the burden of his earthly
life, it was in the arms of the Welsh exile that he breathed
his last. 1 Dr. Lewis naturally became acquainted with
the Cardinal's chaplain, Dr. Griffith Roberts, 2 if indeed
the two were not friends before, and as we find a Dr.
Smith also frequently mentioned in connection with the
two, it is no wild conjecture to conclude that Rhosier
Smith 3 was also numbered among the Archdeacon's

ignorant and unwise, not political, is seen by the fact that up to
1 58 1 only three persons lost their lives for Catholicism under
Elizabeth ; although from 1570 onward all Catholic propagan-
dists and " obstinate " recusants were treated as disloyal subjects,
and imprisoned when caught (Hume's Treason and Plot, p. 84).
It was only in 1582, after Campion's death and Parsons' return
from his English mission, that Allen began to concern himself
with politics (Knox, Records, vol. ii. p. xxiii ; see Allen's An
Apologie, etc. . . . of the two English Colleges (Mounts in Henault,
1581)). But see a letter of Sanders to Allen from Madrid in 1577
(c. State Papers, Dom., Eliz., vol. cxviii.), which seems to show
that even as early as that year, Allen was embroiled in political
schemes.

1 Knox, Records of English Catholics, vol. i. Intro, p. xxx. and
p. 430 ; vol. ii. 469. St. Carlo Borromeo died in 1594-

2 The author of a Welsh Grammar (Dosbarth Byr) published at
Milan in 1567, and the Drych Cristionogawl (1585).

3 Published several Welsh books on the Continent. Died 1625.
For an account of Smith, and a facsimile of a letter in Welsh
written to him in 1596 by Griffith Roberts, see the present writer's
article in the Transactions of the Cymmrodorion Society for 1902.

THE REFORMATION 207

Welsh friends and followers. Almost the first use to
which Dr. Lewis put his influence in high places was to
establish another English College in Rome, where the
best students at Douay could come to finish their train-
ing for the missionary field in the mother city of the
Catholic faith. 1 In 1575-6 Dr. Allen, the head of the
prosperous College at Douay, was summoned to Rome
to give the Pope the benefit of his advice and experience.
The result was that the Pope decided to found an English
College at Rome.

There had long existed an English hospital (of St.
Thomas of Canterbury) for the entertainment of pilgrims
in the Eternal City. What its origin really was it is,
with our present information, impossible to say. Accord-
ing to English authorities, it was founded in 727 by Ina ;
it ceased to exist in 1204 ; and in 1362 it was revived
by John Shepherd, a merchant of London. 2 According
to the Welsh version, it was originally founded by King
Cadwallader, and the house itself, which, we are told,
was " both large and faire, standing in the way to the
Pope's Pallace, not far from the Castle of St. Angelo," 3
was once the Palace of the last King of united Wales. 4
Since the conquest of Wales in 1282 it had been thrown

1 Taunton's Jesuits, p. 34 ; Ely's Brief Notes, p. 73. Meyer
never even mentions Lewis, but ascribes all the credit for the
English College to Allen.

- Taunton's Jesuits, p. 34.

3 The English Romayne Life, imprinted at London by John
Chorlwoode, Anno 1590, reprinted in Harl. Misc. vol. vii. p. 136.
The author was A.M., the initials of Anthony Munday.

4 " The Welshmen pretended the first foundation of the College
to have bene by a British king, for the perpetuall behoof of his
countrymen " (L. Lewkenor's Estate of the English Fugitives
in Spain, printed in London, 1595). ' The English Hospital,

208 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

open to the pilgrims of both nations, but its govern-
ment, it was contended, should still lie in the hands of
Welshmen. 1 However that may have been, in 1559 a
Welshman, Sir Edward Came, Queen Mary's ambassador
in Rome, was appointed Custos or Warden, and two years
later Dr. Goldwell, the exiled Bishop of St. Asaph. In
1567 the Bishop seems to have resigned, 2 and Edward
Taylor, Thomas Kerton, and Henry Matthews are men-
tioned as his successors. In the same year Dr. Maurice
Clenock — a thin disguise for Dr. Morris of Clynog, in
Carnarvonshire — was appointed Camerarius, and ten
years later Custos or Warden.

Morris, who was educated at Christ Church, Oxford,
where he graduated B.C.L. in 1548, was afterwards
attached to the household of Cardinal Pole. In the
Cardinal's will the name of Morris appears as one of the
attesting witnesses. 3 In 1553 he became Rector of

yea, and this seminarie were in times past the Palace of Cad-
wallader, Prince of Wales . . . who by his last will . . . gave his
House or Palace ... to bee an Hospital for Welsh pilgrims . . .
and ordained that certaine priestes of his country should have
the rule and government of this Hospital for ever," etc. (Lewis
Owen's Running Register (1626), p. 17).

1 L. Owen's Running Register, p. 17-18.

2 It may have been owing to advanced age, but more probably
to other activities. In 1580 Goldwell refused to accompany
Parsons and Campion to England, owing to his age. He was
then close upon eighty years old. Bishop Goldwell, if Dr.
Morris's alleged account is genuine, was confined to his room
at the Hospital in 1578-9 (Dodd's Church History, vol. ii. 171).
He was born about 1500 (Knox, Life of Goldwell).

3 In Card. Pole's will, which was executed on Oct. 14th, 1558.
the attesting clause runs : " Presentibus venerabili fratre meo
Thomea Episcopo Assavensi ac discretis viris Seth Hollando decano
Wigorniensi, Mauricio Clenocke capellano et Johanne Francisco
Stella auditore meis, testibus ad haec per me specialiter vocatis
et rogatis " {Wills from Doctors' Commons, Camden Society,

P- 53)-

THE REFORMATION 209

Orpington, in Kent, and Dean of Shoreham and Croydon.
In 1556 he was presented to the sinecure rectory of
Corwen, and a little before Queen Mary's death he was
nominated, but was never consecrated, Bishop of Bangor.
On the accession of Elizabeth he accompanied his friend
Bishop Goldwell to Rome. 1

When the Pope determined, in 1578, to found an
English College at Rome, it was only natural that he
should utilise the Hospital which was already existing.
The College was therefore joined to the Hospital, and
the Warden of the Hospital became also the first Rector
of the College. The instruction of the students was
entrusted to three Fathers of the Society of Jesus, with
Father Aggazzari at the head. 2 Immediately the
College was opened twenty-six students were sent to it
from Douay ; and in the following year, 1579, the
Seminary consisted of forty-two students, the Rector,
the Jesuit Fathers, and six servants. 3

The arrangement seems to have worked badly almost
from the start. Dissensions broke out among the

1 Dodd, i. 513. He was at Louvain, however, in 1562.

2 " There is at Rome a colony sent from the Douay Seminary
composed of 26 persons, nearly all divinity students, some of
whom live in the hospital with the brethren, but the greater part
in a house immediately adjoining the hospital. . . . Three
Fathers of your Society are there by command of the Pontiff,
and at the request of Cardinal Morone, the Protector " (Letter of
Gregory Martin to Campion in 1578). At first, Father John Paul
was chief of the Jesuits, but he soon left to take up the rectorship
of the Jesuits at Sienna, so that in 1579 there were only two
Jesuit Fathers left in the College. (V. Haddock's letter ; Dodd,
ii. App. lix.).

3 Gregory Martin to Campion in 1579. For an account of the
curriculum see Meyer's England and the Catholic Church, p. 101
seq., and for the statute dated June 12, 1579, ib. Appendix xvi.
Gregory XIII. gave it 3600 gold scudi a year, and the Abbey of
San Sabino, which brought in a yearly income of 3000 ducats.

W m.w.

210 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

students, which culminated in open rebellion against
the Rector. It may be admitted at once that the
Rector himself was incompetent for the delicate and
difficult task he had to perform. 1 He was a kindly,
well-meaning, garrulous old man ; fond of a tale and a
glass of wine and " good cheer " generally. 2 He had
never had any previous experience of governing students, 3
and the thirty-three English students 4 resented the

1 Of Dr. Morris's capacity and character there are extant
several contemporary estimates. In the Vatican papers he is
described as "a good man, but is no preacher. He is worthy
of the See of Bangor, to which he has been nominated " (Brady,
Episcopal Succession, ii. 324). Dr. Allen, in writing to Dr. O.
Lewis, admits that it was a mistake in the first instance to appoint
Morris, " because Mr. Maurice, being otherwise a very honest
and friendly man, and a great advancer of the students' and
seminaries' cause, had admitted there, sent for, and called for
two up to the Seminary, some of his own country folks and
friends, for age, quality and instruction unfit for the study and
the Seminary." " It was," he adds, " an escape and default "
on O. Lewis's part, " because you did not dehort Mr. Maurice
from taking unto him that charge in the beginning for which,
indeed, no dishonour be it unto him, he was not sufficient "
(Knox, Records, ii. 79, May 12, 1579). But it must be remembered
that Allen was prejudiced by his kinsman Haddock and his
inclinations to the Jesuits.

2 Anthony Munday tells how he and his " fellow " sat up one
night with Dr. Morris at the Hospital. " Maister Morris using
us very courteously, passing away the supper-time with much
variety of talke, amonge which maister doctor sayde his pleasure
of divers persons in Englande : which for that it would rather
checke modestie, then challenge any respect of honestie, I admitte
it to silence ; the talke being so broade that it would stand as a
blemish to my booke."

3 Fr. Parsons to Allen, from Rome, March 30th, 1579 : " Touch-
ing Mr. Morice and his government, I think verily and do partly
know also, that it was insufficient for such a multitude ; and how
could it be otherwise, he being alone without help and never
practised in such a manage before ? " (Knox, Records, ii. 74).

4 " We {i.e. the English students) were thirty-three in com-
pany " (Haddock's letter to Dr. Allen ; Dodd, ii. App. lix.).

THE REFORMATION 211

open preference which the old Welshman showed for
the company of his nine compatriots in the College.
The question of the origin of the College was invested
with a new importance, and racial passions ran high.
The petition which the English students drew up is
evidence of the bitter hatred which had been engendered.
They appealed to Cardinal Morone, the Protector of
the College, and the speech of Sherwin, 1 the spokesman
of the English students, has been preserved by one who
heard it delivered. ' When any Englishman," said
Sherwin, " cometh to the hospitall, if his learning be
never so good, or his behaviour never so discreet, except
he (the Warden) be pleased, he shall not be entertained : 2
but if a Welshman come, if he be never so vilde a runa-
gate, never so lewde a person, he can not come so soone
as he shall be welcome to him ; whether he have any

1 The " author-reporter " of the speech was Anthony Munday,
who only published it in 1590, or eleven years after. He refers
to Sherwin as one " whoe was executed with Campion (in 1581),
being there esteemed a singular scholler, bothe for his eloquence,
as also his learning." Sherwin, though executed with Campion,
was a Secular priest, and not a Jesuit. The report, which tallies
with the written complaints of the English students, seems to be
substantially accurate.

2 This hardly agrees with the account which Munday gives
of the welcome which was extended to himself and his " fellow "
at the Hospital, " allowing us the eight days entertainment in
the hospital, which by the Pope was granted to such Englishmen
as came thither." Munday, however, says that the proximate
cause of the students' outbreak was his own treatment at the
Hospital. He admits that he outstayed his eight days, that
he refused to become a student, that he had assumed the name
of a well-known Catholic family in order to deceive the English
refugees, that he broke every rule and suffered every punishment
at the College, and that when he found the English students in a
rebellious mood because Dr. Morris wanted to eject him, " I
behaved myselfe more forwardly to Dr. Morris than ever I did
before : everythinge that I hearde of him I toldc unto the
schollers, and tarried there, dinner and supper, in spight of his

212 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

learning or no, it maketh no matter, he is a Welshman,
and he must be permitted. 1 Then which of us hath the
best gowne, he must receive one that is all ragged and
tome, 2 and the new-come Welshman must have the

nose." Finding it impossible to get rid of the impudent impostor,
Dr. Morris complained to Cardinal Morone. This, according to
Munday — whose story in other respects is confirmed by indepen-
dent evidence — led to the first act of open rebellion on the part
of the English students, who said " that if Dr. Morris woulde put
everye Englishman he thought good on out, in short time the
colledge woulde be all Welshmen."

1 Cf. the English students' memorial, " Causae quae scholar es
Angli," etc., cited in Dodd's Church Hist. vol. ii. No. lix. " Nam
ut illi (i.e. Dr. Morris and Dr. Lewis) augere possent numerum
Wallorum in seminario, convocavant alluc ex omni loco et ad-
mittebant Wallos sine commendatione et examinatione, nam
admiserunt fere senes et ineptos, nulla habita ratione aetatis, aut
morum, aut literarum . . . qui contrarium spiritum nobis habent,
et contrarium finem intentioni suae sanctitatis de sublevanda
patria nostra. Ex contraria autem parte, Anglos nullos admitte-
bant, nisi theologos aut philosophos, et variis modis commendatos,
et eos etiam dimculter." Cf. also Haddock's letter to Allen :
" Of the Welshmen that we have here, our Fathers do say, and
so they show themselves, that they be " ineptissimi pro seminario."
Parsons boasted that the English students "are descended . . .
frequently from noble families and wealthy parents . . . and . . .
that in the three English seminaries of Rome, Rheims, and Valla-
dolid there are more flowers of nobility than among all your
clergy at home." (Philopater, par. 214). Probably this was
not the case with the Welsh students.

2 Cf . Parsons to Allen, March 30th, 1579 (Knox, Records, ii.
p. 74). " The schollers also were very evil provided for neces-
saries sometimes going all ragged and in worse case, some of
them at least (and those of the principal) as I have seen with
mine eyes. National partialities also in distribution of things,
I think, was not so carefully avoided as ought to have been."
This is also mentioned in the English students' " causae," the
first part of which has already been cited. " Post autem ad-
missionem in seminarium, iniquissime distribuebant (omnia).
Nam Wallis integra cubicula, Anglis arctissima loca : Wallis
vestem novum et duplicem pro hieme, Anglis, iisque sacerdotibus
et nobilibus multis, nullum hiemis vestitum ; imo cogebant

THE REFORMATION 213

best, because he is the Custos' countryman ; and many
nightes he must have the Welshman in his chamber,
where they must be merry at their good cheer : wee
glad to sit in our studies, and have an ill supper, because
M. doctor waisteth our commons upon his owne country-
men : so that we must be content with a snatch and
away. If there be one bede better than another, the
Welshman must have it ; if there be any chamber
more handsome than another, the Welshman must lodge
there ; in breefe, the things of most account are the
Welshman's at commande. This maketh many of
us to wishe ourselves Welshmen, because we woulde
gladly have so good a provision as they ; and being
countrymen to our Custos, wee shoulde all be used
alike : excepting maister doctor's nephew, Morganus

eos secretiores vestes aestatis praeteritae ferre laceratas, et
omnino vermibus infectas. Sic cum hospitale Anglorum, ab
Anglis jam a multis saeculis fundatum, auctoritate suae sancti-
tatis ad regimen illorum pervenisset, omnes Angli statim ejicie-
bantur, Walli retinebantur qui ibi prius erant, et externi etiam
Walli convolabant statim, omnes tanquam ad communem
praedam, et coquina, ej usque ministris, aliisque omnibus com-
moditatibus hospitalis sic fruebantur, ut suis propriis ; cum
interim nullus et Anglis externis, et per civatatem habitantibus,
similem humanitatem ab illis vel petere auderet vel sperare."
It is interesting to find what object the English students thought
Dr. Morris and his friend the Archdeacon were trying to serve.
Hinc etiam apparet causa, quare archidiaconus tam vehementer
laborat retinere D. Mauritium et seipsum in hoc regimine, ut
quinquaginta tres Walli, qui domi Anglis serviunt, dominentur
his Romae, et, si forte his temporibus (quod speramus) con-
vertatur Anglia ad fidem catholicam, ipse, per favorem quem
ambit summi pontificis, et illustrissimorum cardinalium, se
suosque Wallos ad dignitates ecclesiasticas in Anglia promoveat,
quod nunquam poterit fieri sine infinita perturbatione illius regni "
etc. Meyer's criticism of Hume's (Treason and Plot) statement,
and that it is absurd to attribute to the seminarist " golden
dreams of mitres, titles, and commands," is, in view of this
passage, a little beside the mark (p. 353, n. 2).

214 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

Clenokus, 1 he must be in his silke, though all the rest
goe in a sacke." 2

A little tact and wisdom, opportunely applied, might
have averted the worst effects of the conflict, but these
were elements which seem to have been lacking on both
sides. Dr. Morris was in constant communication, if
not in daily contact, with Owen Lewis ; indeed, the
government of the College seems at this time to have been
largely in the hands of the Archdeacon. Early in 1579,
a wandering Englishman, half spy, half adventurer,
and wholly rascal, named Anthony Munday, 3 visited
the Hospital, and in a pamphlet which he published
eleven years later he gives a very vivid and amusing
account of the dissensions at the College. Almost
immediately after his arrival, Dr. Morris took him to

1 Morgan Clenock was entered as an alumnus at the Roman
College in 1579, aet. 19. He had, therefore, only just arrived
from Wales. Morgan was sent to England as a missionary
priest in 1582, and laboured in the missionary field in Carmar-
thenshire.

2 Munday's English Romayne Life, Harl. Misc. vii.

3 This amusing rogue says that it was " desire to see strange
countries as also affection to learn the languages " persuaded him
to travel abroad. He confesses that, while in Paris, he assumed
a false name, which served as a passport to English Catholic
circles on the Continent. He was at first a stage-player, then a
servant to the Earl of Oxford ; and ultimately a messenger of
the Queen's bed-chamber. Soon after his Roman escapade the
Jesuits found out that he was a spy, and in 1581 Parsons wrote
violently against him in his True Reports of the Death and Martyr-
dome of M. Campion. But this was after Munday had betrayed
to the English Government the " treasonable practices " of
Campion. In 1582 he published a book, A Discoverie, in which
he repeated his charges against the Jesuits. His true character,
or want of character, is abundantly shown in his own writings,
but though he wrote with an occasional touch of malice, he
seems on the whole to be a careful observer and a truthful
witness.

THE REFORMATION 215

" Doctor Lewes, Archdeacon of Cambra, to whom wee
delivered his letter likewise, and with him wee staied
dinner : ignorant whether he were an Englishman or no,
for that he gave our entertainment in Latin, demanded
a number of questions of us in Latin, and beside dined
with us in Latin : whereat we mervayled, tyll, after
dinner, he bade us walke againe to the colledge, with
Doctor Morris, in English."

But Owen Lewis seems to have been incensed at the
time against the English in general, 1 and the Jesuits
in particular. He suspected — and it is impossible to
deny that there was some foundation for the suspicion
— that the three Jesuit instructors were fanning the
flames of strife. 2 One of the English students, named
Richard Haddock, 3 wrote to his relative, Dr. Allen, at

1 Dr. Allen was told at Paris that Dr. Lewis once said to Leslie,
the famous Bishop of Ross, " My Lord, let us stick together, for
we are the old and true inhabiters and owners of the isle of
Brittany. These others be but usurpers and mere possessors "
(Knox, Records, ii. p. 82). There is no doubt that he was at
this time friendly with Leslie (vide Dr. Plowden's Remarks, p. 103),
who in the later years of his life was Lewis's pensioner (State
Papers, Dom., Eliz., vol. cclii. 10).

2 In his letter to Dr. Allen, dated Rome, March 10, 1579, Dr.
Owen Lewis gives expression to his suspicions about the Jesuits.
The students' '* supplication was penned better than many of
them can pen." Dr. Lewis states that he told the Pope " multos
esse, juvenes et deceptos, qui putabant se vivere in statu peccati,
si aliis parerent quam Jesuitis," and that, though the students
nominated Morton and Bavand as their Rector, or else the
Jesuits, he had recommended Dr. Bristowe (of Rheims) to the
Pope, and to the Cardinals Morone and Como.

3 Haddock, who was a relative of Dr. Allen (vide Taunton's
Jesuits, p. 191), was at this time and all through his life a zealous
adherent of the Jesuits, and a supporter of the " Spanish faction."
He and Array, one of the other English malcontents, afterwards
acted as proctors for the Archpriest Blackwell at Rome during
the " Appellant " controversy, twenty years later {ibid. 251),
and Mush mentions Haddock as one of Parsons.' mercenarii in

2i6 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

Rheims, giving an account of the disturbances at the
Roman College. After describing how four of the
English students had gone to Civita Vecchia to speak to
the Pope, who told them that non erat tempus nunc, he
went on to say, " These things being thus, beginneth
good Mr. Archdeacon to play his part, of whom, by the
way, you shall understand how (for all his fair words and
promises) he is affected towards us and our cause. For
at our being away from home he uttered these words,
which be all over the town, to his great shame, if he had
any, to wit, that he had three sorts of enemies, amongst
whom the first were boys . . . The second are the
Jesuits, whereas I wonder he is not utterly ashamed,
and by the which I trust, you will more easily under-
stand his doings, and orderly and honest proceedings
against your poor company and scholars ; and for my
part, I do promise him very hardly the friendship of
any Catholic Englishman that proclaimeth himself
enemy unto the Jesuits. But as he useth in all things
else, he will perad venture deny that again. The third
was, as he termed them, charlotorii, that is, tattlers,
wherein he comprehended all our countrymen in the
town." 1

Rome, 1602 (ibid. 262). Mush, who was one of the most pro-
minent of the malcontents, afterwards became an opponent of
Parsons and the Jesuits. Parsons described him as one who
had been rejected by the Society of Jesus on account of his
impracticable temper, and of an impetuous and resentful dis-
position. He was " a poor rude serving man " who had been
received and educated by the Jesuits out of charity (ibid.
pp. 264, 268).

1 Haddock's letter of March 9, 1579, which is very long and
detailed, gives an excellent chronological account of the con-
cluding stages of the " English revolt " against Dr. Morris
(Dodd, ii. App. No. lix.)

THE REFORMATION 217

The letters of Haddock seem to have carried great
weight with Dr. Allen, who, in spite of his close friend-
ship with Dr. Owen Lewis, took the English side in the
dispute. Probably, ' nepotism " — as well as anger
at the Jesuits and sympathy with his Welsh friend —
had something to do with Owen Lewis's attitude ; for
one of the most energetic and fiery of the Welsh faction
was his nephew, Hugh Griffith, 1 afterwards Provost of
Cambray. " You must temper your cousin Hughes
tongue and behaviour," wrote Allen to Lewis, 2 " who
is of a bitter, odd, and incompatible nature." Hugh
Griffith, indeed, had no doubts as to the part which the
Jesuit fathers were playing.

1 Hugh Griffith is mentioned by all the English writers as one
of the principal causes of the quarrel. Munday says that one
day the scholars were called before Cardinal Morone " because
there was one Hugh Griffin, a Welshman of a hote nature, and
he woulde many times fall together by the eares with some of
the schollers that sometime the blood ranne about their eares "
(The English Romayne Life). Haddock tells Allen, in his letter
of March 9, that if the Welsh students " could have their will,
they would live here for ever, and do nothing but quarrel ; as
Griffith never ceaseth, Smith, nor Meredith." Hugh never
forgave the Jesuits the part they had played. In February,
1582, Dr. Lewis wrote to Allen from Milan : " nepos mens Hugo
jam cornplevit cursum philosophiae. Scripsit dominus Cardinalis
S. Sixti ad me suadens ul ilium ad me ex urbe revocarcm ; quod
libenter facerem, si non esset ad quaedam mea et archiepiscopi
nostri Cameracensis negotia illic persequenda necessarius. Con-
queruntur quod multa loquatur contra collegium ; nescio ; sed
suavi et arnica tractatione possent ilium habere amicissimum."
In the last sentence is to be found probably the secret of the
ill-success of the Jesuit fathers in their treatment of the Welsh
students. Allen wrote back advising Dr. Lewis to take his
nephew away, "ac id quoque esse ad salutemjuvenis et collegii pacem
omniumque animorum reconciliationem " (Knox, Records, vol. ii.
112 seq.). For proofs of Hugh's lasting animosity to the Jesuits,
vide Foley's Jesuits, vi. 740 ; Ely's Brief Notes, 12 ; Tierney's
Dodd, vol. hi., p. lxxx. ; Spanish State Papers, 1596, p. 628.

2 May 12th, 1579 (Knox, Records, ii. p. 82).

218 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

" Hugh writeth to me," said Allen, 1 " and to Dr.
Bristowe most plainly that the Jesuits have been and
shall be proved the council and counsellors of all these
tumults . . . Item, he saith that the Jesuits have no
skill or experience of our country's state, nor of our men's
nature ; and that their trade of syllogising there is not
fit for the use of our people."

For a long time the Welshmen held out triumphantly
against the English students. In vain did the mal-
contents appeal to the Cardinal Protector and even to
the Pope. The answer was always the same, ' You
must obey the Rector." At last, the English students
in a body left the College, and determined to walk back
across the Continent on their way to England. When
they marched out, great was the joy among the Welsh
students, and hot Hugh Griffith " gave a leap in the
College hall, and shouted ' Who now but a Welsh-
man ? ' " 2 But the end was not yet. The English
students had no money, and for a few days they put up
at the house of an English resident, named Creed, 3
while they begged their viaticum. In the meantime, the
Jesuits spread broadcast the story of their grievances.
Every Jesuit pulpit in Rome resounded with eulogies
of the pluck and courage of the English students. 4 At

1 Ibid.

2 Parsons' letter to Dr. Allen, March 30, 1579 (Knox, Records,
ii. p. 74).

3 This is the name given both by Munday (English Romayne
Life) and by Haddock in his letter to Allen. Dr. Lewis, in his
letter to Allen, states that the students had gone to Dr. Morton's
house, " credo," but the qualification shows that the Archdeacon
was only speaking from hearsay (Dodd, ii.). As both Munday
and Haddock were among the malcontents, their evidence is
conclusive.

1 The accounts given by Munday in The English Romayne
Lije, and by Haddock in his letter, show beyond question that

THE REFORMATION 219

last the news came to the ear of the Pope himself — Owen
Lewis says that he was the informant. 1 The Pope
became alarmed at the possible effect which the angry
exodus of so many aspirants to mission work would have
on the enterprise of converting England. He called the
malcontents to him, he sympathised with their griev-
ances, he insisted that he had founded an English, and
not a Welsh College, 2 and he ended up by promising to
concede all their wishes. He was as good as his word.

the Jesuit Fathers were supporting the English students. " The
Jesuits," said Haddock, " began to beg in the pulpits for us, being
Ash- Wednesday, and the first day of preaching, but without
naming us. . . . And at Sienna is the Rector of the Jesuits, he
that was our father the last summer . . . father John Paul, where
we had 50 crowns appointed for us to be taken by the way.
. . . The Jesuits were out of their wits almost for us, insomuch
that they wept, many of them. ..." Then when the news
of victory came, " our fathers were beside themselves for joy.
The Jesuits at the colleges were never so amazed and joyful. . . .
In one word, such a general joy was through the whole society
for us, as if it had been for themselves. . . The Jesuits admire
our doings that we durst be so plain in our doings " (Dodd, ii.
App. lix.).

1 Lewis to Allen, March 10, 1579. On Ash Wednesday, he
says, he went to the Cardinal " ante lucem," and got him to tell
the Pope (Dodd, ii.). " Mr. Archdeacon," says the sceptical
Haddock, " would make us believe that he procured our return
again. But we know he had appointed to have set or to have
taken himself the house we dwell in, and had appointed of
Scotchmen and Irishmen in our places " (Dodd, ii.). The
Cardinal of Como told Lewis that the students did not believe
he had sought to get them reinstated, " quod tamen," said Lewis
to Allen, " est verissimum " (Dodd, ii. App. lix.). This is the
version adopted by the author of A Brief Discovery, and by
Lewis Owen in his Running Register.

a Munday relates that when Sherwin explained the grievances
of the English students to the Pope, " upon these words the
pope started out of his chayre. ' Why ' (quoth he) ' I made the
hospitall for Englishmen, and for their sake have I given so large
exhibition, and not for the Welshmen.' " But neither Haddock
nor Lewis confirms this version.

220 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

Dr. Morris was removed from the Rectorship of the
College, though he was allowed to retain the Wardenship
of the Hospital. 1 The students were allowed to nomi-
nate his successor. The Englishmen selected the Jesuit,
Father Aggazzari ; 2 the nine or ten Welshmen nominated
Dr. Bristowe of Rheims. 3 But though the Welshmen's
choice was supported by Dr. Lewis, the English students
carried their man. Whether the Jesuits had intended,
from the start, to capture the College or not, in the result,
that was the issue of the dissensions. They had un-
doubtedly sympathised with the English faction ; they
had actively supported them ; the Welshmen openly
accused them of being the root and origin of the mischief.
Soon after Dr. Morris left Rome. In 1580, he embarked
at Rouen on board a vessel which was bound for Spain.
The ship was wrecked, and Dr. Morris was drowned. 4
Once more the Roman Hospital was joined to the College,
and the large income of the Hospital went to the support
of the Jesuit College. Owen Lewis retired — some said
in disgust 5 — to Milan, and there he remained with his

1 " The Cardinall Morone, because Dr. Morris should not lose
all his dignity, caused the house to be parted, and so made both a
seminarye for the students, and an hospitall for the entertain-
ment of English pilgrims when they came, whereof Dr. Morris con-
tinued custos by the pope's appointment" (English Romayne Life) .

2 As early as Jan. 20, 1578, the English students had sent
a petition to the Cardinal Protector, nullum certum hominem
petimus, quia absumus in hac causa ab omni humano affectu.:
solum, cupimus . . . ut res committatur patribus societatis Jesu. . ."
(Dodd, ii. App. lx.).

3 Lewis to Allen, March 10, 1579.

4 Morris was in Rome in July, 1580. (See Goldwell's letter
to the Cardinal of Como ; Theiner, Annates, iii. 701 ; Plowden,
Remarks, p. 105.)

5 Plowden, Remarks, p. 105. For the dispute between Welsh
and English, see also H. Morus, Hist, missionis Angl. soc. Jesu.

THE REFORMATION 221

friend Cardinal Borromeo for several years. It is quite
possible, therefore, that he may have read in MS.
Griffith Roberts's Drych Cristionogawl, which was
published by Rhosier Smith in Rouen in 1585.

" Thus was the strife ended," wrote Anthony Munday
in his flippant way ; but Parsons was wiser in his genera-
tion. " Thus you see," he wrote to Allen, 1 " when
national dissension is once raised how hard it is to appease
it " ; and Allen deplored to Lewis 2 the racial strife which
he knew was " much greater and much further spread,
by that beginning and root there unluckily planted, than
you there can perceive." But neither Parsons nor Allen
foresaw the magnitude of the effects of that unlucky
conflict. Allen thought it was " so honest a thing "
for the students " to have the fathers for their governors."
He was of Haddock's opinion that the fathers would
bring the Welsh students into order, so that " before it
be long " they would have in Rome " place for a hundred,
and thereby the gloriousest College of English in the
world." 3 He did not agree with Hugh Griffith that the
Jesuits had " no skill or experience of our country's
state, nor of our men's nature." 4 Nor had he noticed
a phenomenon which had impressed the English students,

(1660); Sacchinus, Hist. soc. Jesu. pt. iv. (1652), lib. vii. ; Parsons'
Memoirs ; and Dodd-Tierney, vol. ii. Appendix, No. lix.

1 Knox, Records, vol. ii. 74.

2 May 12, 1579 (Knox, Records, ii. 78 seq.).

8 Haddock's letter to Allen, March 9, 1579 (Dodd, ii. App. lix.).

4 Quoted in Allen's letter to Lewis, May 12, 1579 (Knox,
Records, ii. 82). Dissensions soon broke out in the College
under the Jesuits, whose methods of espionage and angeli custodes,
and the invidious preference shown to members of their own
Order, led to further troubles. For an account of their dis-
ciplinary system, see Meyer's England and the Catholic Church,
p. 102 seq.

222 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

that Welsh ideals and methods in religion were different
from their own. 1 The Welsh students at the College
were, in the eyes of their English comrades, " ineptissimi
pro seminar io," because they were older in years and
more untrained in scholarship than their fellows. 2 The
Welsh Rector and his friend the Archdeacon of Hainault
may well have thought that these men, however short
they might have fallen of the English standard, were
yet admirably suited for mission work among their own
countrymen at home. Henceforward there was strife
between the Welsh Catholics on the Continent and the
Jesuits. Welsh students were looked upon askance, as
being breeders of dissension. 3 They were required to

1 " Sed tamen (Walli) et lingua, et moribus, et loco habitionis,
et natura etiam multum differunt ab Anglis. . . . Itaque Angli
et Walli, quoad amorem naturalem, se juncta religione Christiana
quam utraque gens profitetur, ita se plane habent et invicem,
ut Hispani et Mauri. ..." They complained that Dr. Morris
had introduced Welsh students into the college " qui contr avium
spiritum nobis habent, et contr avium finem intentioni suae sanctitatis
de sublevanda patria nostra " (" Causae quare scholares Angli
tantum abhorrent a regimine D. Mauritii," quoted in Dodd's
Church History, vol. ii. App. No. lix).

2 " Nam ut illi augere possent numerum Wallorum in seminario,
convocabant illuc ex omni loco et admittebant Wallos sine
commendatione et examinatione, nam admiserunt fere senes
etineptos, nulla habita ratione aetatis, aut morum, aut literarum "
(ibid.). In our own times, the wisest thing that the Church of
England in Wales ever did was to establish a College at Lampeter
for students for the ministry who in the opinion of Oxford and
Cambridge would have been " ineptissimi." Who can think
of Bishop Joshua Hughes and Chancellor Silvan Evans as
" ineptissimi " ?

3 See a remarkable letter sent by Dr. Richard Barrett, of
Rheims, in April, 1583, to Father Aggazzari, advising him how
he should manage the Welsh students, not by contradicting
and forcing them in his way, but by seeming to humour them.
" Nam (haeretici in Anglia) excitant quantum possunt Wallos
contra Anglos, et contra : et in utroque genere hominum incidunt
aliquando in eos quos facile est commovere. Walli certi dili-

THE REFORMATION 223

attain to the English standard before they were admitted
to the seminaries, 1 and as educational advantages were
few in Wales, and the people were poor, the number of
Welsh students at the Catholic seminaries became less
and less, as time went on. Wales was allowed to drift,
by almost imperceptible degrees, away from the Catholic
faith. In the next century devoted priests trained in
the Jesuit schools, such as Robert Jones 2 and Philip
Evans, 3 William Morgan 4 and David Lewis, 5 laboured

gentissimi sunt et egregii artifices in hac re. Observant mira-
biliter si quis querelam aliquam habeat, aut causam aliquam
alienati animi, ut illi putant, a superioribus, cujusmodi res
frequentissimae sunt. Hunc aggrediuntur omni humanitate et
officio ; dant, si opus sit pecunia ; invitant ad collationem ;
nunquam relinquunt ; et hoc modo pervertunt saepe multos
ex Anglis," etc. (Knox, Records, vol. i. 326). " Parsons," wrote
a spy to Cecil in October, 1601, "is altogether incensed against the
Welsh, and then said that two Welshmen should never be of
the College at once during such time as he was Rector, for if
there were three they would set the house on fire. His reason

for this cause is that Richard Powell, of Millayne, and

Bennett, now priest in England, curbed him, and made their
complaints to the Cardinals of misgovernment of the College "
(State Papers, Dom., Eliz., vol. xxxiv. ; Addenda, n. 42, ii. ;
Foley's Jesuits, vi. 738).

1 " And one thing mark — that if you send any Welshman, let
him be as fit as the others, or else, by any means, hinder him "
(Haddock to Allen, March 9th, 1579).

2 Robert Jones, " Robertus Hilarius," or Hay, born, 1564,
near Chirk, Denbighshire. Alumnus, S.J. at Rome, 1582.
Succeeded Fr. Holt as Superior of whole Order in England, 1609.
(Vide Foley's Jesuits, vol. iv. pp. 333-561.)

3 Philip Evans, b. Monmouthshire, 1645 ; educated St. Owen's ;
entered S.J. 1665 ; South Wales Mission, 1675 ; executed (after
Oates' plot) July, 1679.

•' William Morgan, second son of Henry Morgan, Flint, b. 1623 ;
entered Engl. Coll. Rome, 1648 ; S.J. 165 1 ; Professor at Jesuit
College, Liege, 1661 ; North Wales Mission, 1670 ; in Oates' list,
but escaped to Continent, 1679 ; Rector of Engl. Coll., Rome,
1683 ; Provincial S.J. 1689 ; d. St. Omer, 1689.

6 David Lewis, alias Charles Baker, b. Abergavenny, 161 4;

224 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

in various parts of Wales, and with some success. 1 But
though the harvest was plentiful, the labourers were
few. They had been trained, moreover, after a foreign
model and they formed part of an alien organisation.
Their system possessed and reflected none of that
intense national individuality which has always marked
the religious life of Wales. 2 The racial animosity and the
sectarian prejudices, so lightly aroused in Rome in 1579,
not only paralysed in after years the efforts of the Jesuits
to win back England to the Papacy, but they led, in
the long result, to Wales being left derelict, until the
Puritans came and held before Welshmen a new religious
ideal, which, whatever be its defects, had the merit of
meeting the spiritual needs and conforming to the
distinctive genius of the people of Wales. 3

Engl. Coll., Rome, 1638 ; priest S.J. 1642 ; South Wales Mission,
1648 ; apprehended at Llantarnam for alleged complicity in
Oates' plot, and executed at Usk, Aug. 27, 1679.

1 Vide Reports of Catholicism in Wales in Foley's Jesuits,
vol. iv. p. 441. In 1636, for example, the various missions in
South Wales are said to have been attended " with much success,' '
which was attributed " to the greater attachment of the common
people to the ancient faith, and to the absence of luxury." In
1 64 1 -4 there were said to be twenty-seven fathers and two lay-
brothers in the Mission, and 154 conversions are recorded in South
Wales. In 1676-7 the return gives only six fathers in South
Wales.

2 It is a happy augury for the success of the Disestablished
Church that in the Church Congress held at Llandrindod Wells
in June 1919, it was unanimously resolved that Wales should
be formed into a distinct ecclesiastical province under its own
Archbishop.

3 Plowden, in his Remarks (1594, p. 101), states that the first
beginning of the feud was caused by the attempt of Dr. Owen
Lewis " before the alteration of the English hospital at Rome
into a college ... in conjunction with his countryman, Dr.
Maurice Clenock, to introduce a Welshman, of the name of Price,
as fellow into the hospital ; and he had been foiled in the attempt

THE REFORMATION 225

The Society of Jesus had been for some time casting
longing eyes on the English mission field. The political
situation was becoming more and more complex. For
many years the Catholics of England had been content
to obey Elizabeth as the sovereign de facto, if not dejure. 1
Most of them were willing to acknowledge her as the
rightful queen. Her natural successor was Mary,
Queen of Scots, and Catholics were content at first to
bide in patience till Elizabeth was removed by the
process of time. But by 1579, Mary had been for eleven
years practically a prisoner in Elizabeth's hands. One
plot after another for her release had failed ; the Ridolfi
conspiracy had ended disastrously and the Duke of
Norfolk had lost his head on the scaffold. In vain had
the Pope, in 1570, launched his Bull of Excommunication
against Elizabeth. 2 There was no one to enforce it,

through the opposition of the English chaplains of the house. . . .
This petty disappointment was not forgotten when a national
quarrel broke out between the English and Welsh students newly
admitted into the college." I have, however, found no other
reference to this dispute, and know not upon what authority
Plowden based his statement.

1 Though Pius IV. passed a Bull of Excommunication against
Elizabeth in 1560, it was not published till 1570 by Pius V.
The secular sovereigns of Europe were not prepared even then
to enforce it, and it therefore remained in abeyance. Gregory
XIII. had to explain away the Bull in 1580 (Meyer, p. 138).
In 1583 the Bull was renewed. But Sixtus V., on the eve of
the Armada, refused further to renew it, though he published a
" broadsheet " reciting the previous Bull (Meyer, p. 323).

2 Dr. Morris of Clynog wrote a letter in Welsh dated May 24,
1567, from Rome to Sir William Cecil warning him in veiled
language of the threatened excommunication, which had then
been decided on, though it was not published till 1570. Pius V.
had succeeded Pius IV. in 1566, and the ascetic friar, " Brother
Woodenshoe," as he was nicknamed, early evinced his deter-
mination to publish the Bull. See the writer's article on " Welsh
Catholics " in the Cymmrodorion Transactions, 1903, Appendix D,
where a facsimile of the letter is printed.

w.M.w. p

226 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

and Philip of Spain, the most orthodox and devoted
Catholic prince of his age, refused to allow the Bull to
be published in his dominions. The most Christian
King of France was anxious to conclude a political and
matrimonial alliance with the heretic queen. In the
meantime England was becoming more and more identi-
fied with the Protestant cause. Her political needs drove
her to take up the position, which Elizabeth had not
sought, of champion and protector of the Protestant
princes and states of Europe. Her expanding trade and
her daring sailors brought her into sharp contact with
the pretensions of Spain. A new generation was grow-
ing up that remembered no other form of worship except
that which was established by law. It was no wonder
that strenuous and fiery souls should become impatient
at the long and weary waiting. They longed to be back
once more in the land of their birth ; they were conscious
of great talents, which they felt should be directed to
greater and more enduring objects than intrigue and
plot. The conversion of England by prayer and preach-
ing, by moral suasion and lives of self-sacrifice, seemed
a dreary if not a hopeless task. By slow stages there
emerged two parties or factions among the English exiles
on the Continent. The one may be called the " physical
force " party, composed of men who were willing to
sacrifice the political independence of England on the
altar of religion. They were ready to hand over the
throne of England to a foreign prince in order that the
realm might be regained to Catholicism. The two most
prominent champions of this school were Dr., after-
wards Cardinal, Allen — in the last dozen years of his
life — and Robert Parsons, the greatest of the English
Jesuits. They saw, or thought they saw, that it was

THE REFORMATION 227

only by deposing Elizabeth and subjugating England
that the Catholic religion could be re-established. 1
Mary Stuart was powerless and a prisoner. The French
king was either fighting or conciliating the Huguenots.
In either case he was in no state to take in hand the
gigantic task of conquering England. Philip of Spain
alone remained. He was a bigoted Catholic ; he was
the most powerful monarch in Europe. His army was
the finest military engine in the world ; the Duke of
Parma was the first Commander of the age ; the wealth
of the Indies was at his command ; his fleets covered
every sea. But Philip was not inclined to move as long
as Mary Stuart was an effective claimant to the English
throne. 2 For thirty years, therefore, Elizabeth was left
secure. The English refugees perceived that their one
hope of conquering England in their own lifetime was
by adopting Philip as their champion. His descent from
John of Gaunt was paraded ; the fact was recalled that
in Mary's reign, he had been titular King of England.
Mary Stuart herself, not long before her death, solemnly
disinherited her son for heresy, and made Philip of

1 " Of all the orthodox in the realm there is not one who any
longer thinks himself bound in conscience to obey the queen ;
and we have lately published a book especially to prove that
it is not only lawful, but our bounden duty, to take up arms at
the bidding of the pope, and to fight for the faith against the
queen and other heretics " (Allen to the Pope, 1587-8, quoted
in Simpson's Life of Campion, p. 377).

2 " Yet, after the death of the Queen of Scots, both Allen
and Parsons sought to stir up the Spanish king, who never
could be persuaded to attempt anything against England ;
and in her lifetime, objecting that he should travail for others ;
she being dead, the expectation was increased for the last
invasion " (Confessions of James Young, priest, in 1592 (State
Papers, Dom., Eliz., vol. ccxlii. 121)). Cf. Neville's letters to
Cecil, June 27, 1509 (Dom., Eliz., vol. cclxxi. 29).

228 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

Spain her heir. For several years before her execution,
the Jesuits had worked for the King of Spain ; Mary
was only used as a convenient tool to further their real
designs ; and her death was calmly discussed by leading
Jesuits as having finally removed the only serious rival
from Philip's path. 1

On the other hand, there was a powerful and numerous
band of Catholics who hated the Spaniard and dis-
trusted the Jesuits, who would have no foreign power
predominant in England, and who looked to the reclama-
tion of the fatherland by faith and works, by patient
zeal, and reliance on the invincibility of truth. Some
of them, indeed, were no contemners of carnal weapons.
The French and Scotch factions, led by Leslie, the
Bishop of Ross, and Thomas Morgan, "of a right
worshipful family in Monmouthshire," 2 the most
celebrated conspirator of the age, and the trusty friend
and servant of Mary Stuart, were ready to invade
and conquer England by armed force, if it would result
in the immediate or ultimate elevation of the Queen
of Scots to the English throne. 3 But the view of the

1 On June 15, 1587, Olivarez wrote to Philip II. : ' They
{i.e. Allen and Parsons) do their best to convince me that it is
not only no loss, but that by her death (of Mary, Queen of Scots)
many difficulties had disappeared." Cf. Hume's Treason and
Plot, p. 13.

2 State Papers, Bom., Eliz., January, 1589-90. He was born
in 1543, and was probably the son of John Morgan of Bassalleg,
a junior branch of the Morgans of Tredegar. He died about 161 1.
For an attempt to ascertain the origin and career of Morgan, see
App. G. in the writer's article on " Welsh Catholics on the
Continent " in the Transactions of the Cymmrodorion Society
(1901-2).

3 In the Spanish State Papers for 1590 (p. 565), a document is
published containing an interesting account of Morgan's career
and policy as they appeared to his enemies. The marginal

THE REFORMATION 229

Welsh Catholics generally was against such " enter-
prises." They believed only in the use of spiritual
weapons. They did not care so much to change the
government as the religion of England. They aimed
at converting, not the ruler, but the people of the
country. If the people remained Catholic they cared
not if, for the nonce, the State Church was Protestant.
They had sufficient faith in their Church to believe
that what the last three centuries have shown to be
possible in Ireland was also practicable in England,
and that the religion of a people was independent of the
wishes of their rulers. It is surely no mere chance or
hazard that has led the Celts of Ireland and of Scotland,
of Cornwall and of Wales, to adopt varying forms of
religion, which have only this in common — that none
of them is supported or countenanced by the State.
And it may well be that that racial instinct led the
Welsh Catholics of Elizabeth's time to distrust the
use of force, and to combat with energy and with heat
the policy of the Jesuit or Spanish faction. 1

note to A. 9 says : " He began by sowing discord between her
(i.e. the Queen of Scots) and her advisors, and persuaded her
that they, and Dr. Allen and the Jesuits, aimed at conquering
England and Scotland for the King of Spain under her name,
and so succeeded in getting her to forbid anyone to communicate
with her, except through Morgan and Chas. Paget. He also
introduced division among the English Catholics, being amongst
those that maintained that matters might be remedied without
the employment of foreign forces, the chiefs of which part are
the bishop of Cassano (Dr. Owen Lewis) in Rome and the bishop
of Dunblane, and they, with Morgan, persecute Cardinal Allen
and the Jesuits and others who wish to reduce England by the
forces of His Majesty (of Spain). He is a partisan of the bishop
of Cassano against Cardinal Allen and the Jesuits. He (Morgan)
frankly confesses that he would be sorry to see his country sub-
jugated by foreigners, and especially Spaniards."

1 Cf Rhys's Celtic Heathendom, p 227.

230 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

It would be easy to adduce numerous proofs of this
essential divergence between the Welsh and the English
Nationalist Catholics and the Jesuits. 1 One bit of
evidence is worth citing for the interesting glimpse
which it gives of Dr. Griffith Roberts in Cardinal
Borromeo's palace in Milan. Our informant again is

1 It is extraordinary how nearly every Welsh Catholic on the
Continent in the latter half of the sixteenth century was ranked
among the opponents of the Jesuits. The attitude of Hugh
Griffith and Rhosier Smith has already been noted. The part
played by Owen Lewis and Thomas Morgan will be dwelt upon
again. A Welshman named Bennett was the leader of the
anti-Jesuit faction in the Roman College in 1594. But even
more obscure Welshmen were opposed to the Society of Jesus,
e.g. one of Cecil's spies writes in 1601 of Ithell, a native of the
diocese of Llandaff, and a chaplain of Notre Dame, who after-
wards (if he be the same as Ishell, chaplain of Notre Dame) helped
John Roberts to found the Benedictine College at Douay :
" Ithell, about 50 (at Arras), who some time was favoured of the
Jesuits, is now hated, only because he will not be as fastidious
as they are " (v. Foley, vi. 740). The career of Dr. Parry, " the
Jesuit," who made a treasonable speech from his place in the
House of Commons, and was hanged for having conspired against
the life of the queen, may appear to contradict this general
statement. But Parry seems to have been a man of ill-balanced
judgment, and the crime which he confessed to was both
mysterious and extraordinary. Though he had designs against
the queen's life, he not only failed to take advantage of oppor-
tunities which offered themselves, but he entered Parliament
with the avowed object of avoiding the necessity of using physical
force by convincing the House by argument. Parry does not
appear to have any connection with other Welsh Catholics,
though he stated that he had talked over his designs with Morgan
in Paris, and he certainly was not connected with any Catholic
conspiracy to bring about an invasion of England by a foreign
power. Vide Froude's Hist, of Engl. xi. 416 ; State Trials, vol. i.

In 1562 Morris of Clynog, then still at Louvain, wrote that
" they are not to be listened to who would persuade us that the
English cannot be forced under the yoke of foreign dominions."
(Meyer's England and the Catholic Church, p. 241). The learned
and brilliant German puts this down to Welsh prejudice against
the English, and to still burning resentment of a prelate dis-
possessed of his See.

THE REFORMATION 231

Anthony Munday, who called on Dr. Roberts at the end
of 1578 on his way to Rome.

' In the cardinall Boromheo's pallace," he wrote,
' wee found the lodging of a Welshman, named doctor
Robert Griffin, a man there had in good account and
confessor to the aforesayde cardinall. . . . On Christ-
masse day wee dined with the doctor Griffin, where
wee had great cheere, and lyke welcome. In dinner
time he mooved many questions unto us, as concerning
the state of Englande, if wee heard of warres towardes,
and how the Catholiques thrived in Englande."

Dr. Roberts went on to tell his guest how three
Englishmen, who were lodging in the same house with
Munday, had designed to invade England, and how
the Pope, " even according as they deserved," denied
their request and sent them away " without recom-
pense." ' The Pope," added Griffith Roberts, " was
not to trust to such as they ; he well knowes England
is too strong yet, and till the people be secretly per-
suaded (as I doubt not but that there is a good number)
and more and more still shall be, by the priestes that
are sent over daylie." *

Here we have, crudely and imperfectly set down by
a hostile hand, the line of policy which was advocated
by the Welsh Catholics on the Continent. They wanted
England to be " secretly persuaded " by priests, not
subdued by soldiers. 2

1 The English Romayne Life, Harl. Misc. vol. vii.

2 Dr. Roberts in 1596 wrote to Rhosier Smith in Paris a Welsh
letter (see App. A. of the writer's " Welsh Catholics " in the
Cynmirodorion Transactions, 1903) in which he warned him not to
cross the Alps and brave the Inquisition at Rome, for that would
be his fate "on account of the old feud (cenngen)."

232 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

In 1579 the " physical force " party was in the ascen-
dant. In May Dr. Nicholas Saunders landed with
Spanish troops in Ireland. In September Esme Stuart,
afterwards Duke of Lennox, returned to Scotland, an
event which led to the execution of the Regent Morton
and the temporary eclipse of the Protestant cause.
A volcanic energy was agitating the Catholic world.
The Society of Jesus, the most marvellous organisation
the world has ever seen, was attracting the fiery
spirits among the English Catholics. Campion, the
inspired preacher — who was soon to seal his testimony
with his life — and Parsons, the man of restless activity
and wide-embracing schemes, were already among its
members. Allen was well-disposed to it. It was bent
on carrying on a Holy War against heretical England.
The zeal of the Crusaders animated every member of
the Society. Hitherto it had sent no missionaries to
the dangerous field of England. While the Secularists
could point to their martyrs, the Society of Jesus could
appeal to no such glorious records of work and suffering
for the faith in England. It was accused of putting
its sickle in other men's harvest, and of enlisting in
its ranks Englishmen who did nothing for their faith
or their country. Now, however, it determined to
monopolise the glory of regaining England to Catholi-
cism. Parsons and Campion were sent to England in
1580. But it was seen at once that if the Society was
to capture the English mission field, it would have
to train up missionaries for the work. The racial
feud which broke out in the College at Rome happened
opportunely, and the Jesuits took advantage of their
chance. Father Parsons, who was in Rome at the
time, was not the man to miss the real significance of

THE REFORMATION 233

the Jesuit victory, or the advantages which the Society
would derive from the control of the education of the
English missionary priests.

During the next eighteen years Father Parsons
strove to achieve this object. The College in Rome
being in Jesuit hands, the next step was to capture
the College at Douay. Dr. Allen, though friendly, was
too great a man to be used merely as a tool. It was
necessary, therefore, to remove him from his post. At
one time Parsons urged that Dr. Allen and Dr. Owen
Lewis should be sent with the invading army to England, 1
and with that object in view Dr. Allen was appointed
Bishop of Durham. But in 1587 a still better chance
offered itself. Parsons had for years been working for
the election of an English Cardinal. In 1587 — the
year before the Spanish Armada — Dr. Allen was raised
to the Cardinalate, through the forceful insistence of
Parsons 2 and the influence of the King of Spain, 3 and

1 Parsons to the Cardinal of Como, 1581. "It would also, we
think, be very useful if His Holiness were to summon to Rome
Dr. Owen Lewis, Archdeacon of Cambrai, an Englishman who
is at Milan, and is very well acquainted with English affairs.
If this man were sent from Rome to Spain under some pretext,
and so went thence with the army to Scotland to meet Allen, who
might start from here, it would be a great help to the cause ; for
though this Dr. Owen, on account of the differences which have
lately arisen between the Welsh and the English, he being a
Welshman, does not stand very well with the greater part of the
English, nevertheless he is a grave and prudent man. If united
to Allen, who possesses the hearts of all, he would be of no small
assistance, especially with his countrymen, the Welsh " (S.P.O.,
" Rom. Transcripts," vol. xv. No. 477 ; Taunton's Jesuits, 99).
Allen was created Bishop of Durham in 1583, but never accom-
panied any of the expeditions to Great Britain or Ireland.

2 Allen stated, in a letter to Dr. Bayly, that " under God " he
owed his Cardinal's hat to Parsons (Knox, Records, ii. p. 299c).
" Proxime eniin sub coelo pater Personius fecit me Cardinalem."

3 Knox, Records, ii. pp. 253, 270, 292, 293 ; Taunton's Jesuits.

234 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

in spite of the opposition of the Welsh, Scotch, and
French factions. 1 The Cardinal was succeeded in
Douay by Dr. Barrett, and afterwards by Dr. Worthing-
ton — two men who were under the influence of Parsons. 2
Several other English Colleges or Seminaries were
subsequently founded by the indefatigable Jesuit in
various parts of Europe — Valladolid in 1589, Seville
and Madrid in 1592, and St. Omer in 1594.

1 T. C, in his article on Owen Lewis in the Dictionary of
National Biography, says that " little reliance can be placed on
the story quoted by Wood from The State of the English Fugitives
(1596) to the effect that Lewis, as a strenuous foe of the Jesuits,
headed a faction against Allen, or that Lewis and Allen were
rival candidates for the cardinalate which fell to the latter."
But this was the view, not only of the author of the pamphlet,
but of all his contemporaries. The personal friendship between
the two men seems never to have been broken or even impaired,
but it is clear that they were at the head of rival factions. Allen
said, a little before his death, after a conversation with Dr. O.
Lewis, " Well, Abraham and Lot were both good men, but their
shepherds could not agree " (Knox, Records, i. c. hi.). It is
certain that Lewis was friendly with Leslie, the Bishop of Ross,
" whose flattering letters to Queen Elizabeth had given great
dissatisfaction " (Plowden's Remarks), and with T. Morgan, the
arch-enemy of the Jesuits and the Spanish faction, who according
to the account given in the English Fugitives, did his utmost
for Dr. Owen Lewis. For other evidence of Lewis's hostility to
the policy of Allen and the Jesuits, see Dom., Eliz., vol. ccxxxix.
87 (a.d. 1592) ; ib, 116, vol. ccxlii. 121 (where Lewis is called
the agent of the Scottish nation) ; ib. 6. It is also certain that
at Allen's death, the Cardinal's friends supported either Parsons
or Stapleton, and opposed Lewis. Cardinal Sega, in his Report
in 1596, confirms Lewkenor's account. " The Bishop of Cassano,"
he said, " deeming the intimate relations of Allen with the Fathers
of the Society a reflection on himself, proceeded to put himself
in opposition to Allen, the Fathers, and the Seminaries, and to
form a faction against them " (Foley's Jesuits, vol. vi.). Vide
also Dr. Gifford's letter, Cal. S.P., Dom., Eliz., cclii. 66 ; Ely's
Briefe Notes, 94-96.

2 See Worthington's letter to Parsons, Tierney's Dodd, vol. v.
App. p. iv.

THE REFORMATION 235

The Society of Jesus, indeed, seemed to have
triumphed over all its opponents. It enjoyed a com-
plete monopoly in the training and education of English
priests ; its two most persistent opponents, Thomas
Morgan and Owen Lewis, were powerless to stem the
tide of its rising fortunes. Thomas Morgan, after
languishing for years in the Bastille, was afterwards
imprisoned by the Duke of Parma in Flanders, at the
instigation — if we may believe a contemporary writer,
who states that he was in Flanders at the time x — of
the Jesuits. When the death of the Duke opened once
more his prison doors, he came out a broken man, and
retired to Rome, to the house of his old friend, Owen
Lewis, now, since 1588, the Bishop of Cassano in Naples. 2
He lingered on for years longer, and was concerned in one
or two more plots ; but though he was still experienced
in " drift es of policy," and ready as ever to give his
enemies " a secret blow," 3 his old power and energy
were gone. Owen Lewis, though raised to a Neapolitan
See in 1588, seems to have lived for the most part in
Rome and Milan till Cardinal Borromeo's death in
1594. He was becoming old, and though high in the
Pope's favour, and ever mindful of old wrongs done
to him and his nation, 4 he had to stand aside while the
Jesuits swept onwards in their resistless progress.

Fair as their prospects appeared, there were clouds,
as yet no bigger than a man's hand, on the horizon.

1 Lewkenor's State of the English Fugitives.

2 Ibid. 3 Ibid.

1 The character given him by W. W. in A Sparing Discovery
(1601), " A milder man lived not, or one more apt to put up with
and forgive all injuries," can hardly be sustained by what is
otherwise known of him.

236 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

The Spanish Armada had disastrously failed, 1 and a
staggering blow was dealt to the " physical force "
party, from which it never wholly recovered. Parsons,
however, was not discouraged or dismayed. Few
understood at the time how completely the power of
Spain was shattered. Parsons in 1594 wrote a book
to vindicate Philip's title, as a descendant of John of
Gaunt, to the throne of England. 2 His friend, Sir
Francis Englefield, two years later, still looked to Spain
for deliverance. 3 Cardinal Allen, as he came once
more into intimate contact with his old friend, Owen
Lewis, began to draw away from the Jesuit faction
after the failure of the Armada. He never actually
quarrelled with them, but it is certain that in his last
days " he began to leave the path " which was mapped
out for him by Parsons. 4 But the greatest source of

1 In 1588. 2 The Book of Succession.

3 Englefield's letter to Philip II. " Without the support and
troops of Spain it is scarcely probable that the Catholic religion
will ever be restored and established in that country (England).
Even the English seminaries, powerful as they are in preparing
men's minds for a change, must fail to complete their object
without the aid of temporal force " (Tierney's edition of Dodd,
vol. hi. 49). In 1599, Sir Henry Neville wrote to Cecil : " I find
there has grown great dissension among our Papists abroad,
one faction, of which Parsons is the head, depends on the Jesuits,
and wishes the overthrow of our present state by conquest or
other means : of the other, consisting chiefly of laymen and
gentlemen, Charles Paget is the head, as he would not consent
to conquest by a foreign Prince " (Dom., Eliz., 271, 29).

4 Father Aggazzari's letter to Parsons on Allen's death :
" When he (Allen) began to leave the path, in a moment the
thread of his plans and life were cut short together " (Sept. 25,
1596, Knox, Douay Diary, p. 387). W. W., in A Sparing
Discovery (p. 34), says : " The most blessed Cardinall Doctor
Allen ... in the end passed not untouched by the Jesuites,
because in very deede he daily saw further into them then he
had done, and therefore not only disliked, but disfavoured divers

THE REFORMATION 237

opposition to the Jesuits was the old feud between them
and the Welsh. The racial dissensions which gave
the control of the Roman College to the Jesuits in
1579, ma de its possession no easy sinecure. Father
Mush, one of the leaders of the English malcontents in
the original trouble, stated in after years that in the
seven years he was there he witnessed as many open
outbreaks. 1 So bitter was the feud in 1582 that per-
fervid Hugh Griffith had to be taken away by his uncle
" ad salutem juvenis et collegii pacem." 2 One Rector
succeeded another, 3 but the disturbances continued.
At the death of Allen in 1594 the dissensions were
renewed. The leader of the Welsh faction was John
Bennett, 4 the author in after days of many anti-Jesuit

their proceedings, specially towards his latter end. . . . Upon
the death of this so memorable a person they openly triumphed,
and . . . sayd that God had taken him away in good time."
Cf. Paget's Answer, p. 20.

1 Mush's Declaratio Motuum. Cf. Ely's Briefe Notes, pp. 73-84.

2 Letter of Allen to Aggazzari (Knox, Records, vol. ii. 112).

3 From 1579 to 1598 — when Parsons became Rector for the
second time — the Rectorship was held in turn by Aggazzari,
Holt, Parsons, Cresswell, Vitelleschi, Fioravanti and Aggazzari (2).

4 Cardinal Sega's Report (quoted in Foley's Jesuits, vol. vi.).
In addition to Bennett, William Ellis, Erasmus Sanders, Hum-
phrey Hughes, and Richard Powell are mentioned as among the
disturbers. One of Cecil's spies, in 1601, stated that " Richard

Powell, of Myllayne and Bennett, now priest in England,

curbed him (Parsons) and made their complaints to the Cardinals
of misgovernment of the College " (Dow., Eliz., vol. xxxiv.
Addenda). Among the students' complaints, according to
Cardinal Sega, was that " Certain libels were circulated of late
among the students, which kindled anew the old quarrel between
the English and the Welsh." There is no doubt that Hugh
Griffith, the leader of the Welsh faction of 1579, was in com-
munication with Edward Bennett during the continuance of
the disturbances down to 1598, when Parsons finally appeased
the factions. (Vide Archpriest Controversy, Camden Society,

238 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

pamphlets, and one of the most pronounced opponents
of the Jesuit policy in the next century.

The Jesuits rightly regarded Owen Lewis as their
foremost enemy. Cardinal Sega, in his report on the
Roman disturbance in 1596, roundly states that to
Lewis " we trace all the quarrels and disturbances of
which the College has been the theatre." x He was
the intimate friend of Thomas Morgan ; he was a
correspondent of Dr. W. Gifford, afterwards the Arch-
bishop of Rheims, and Primate of France. Gifford,
though an Englishman, seems to have had Welsh
connections, for we find Thomas Vaughan, of Courtfield
— who died of ill-usage at Cardiff in 1641 — described as
his nephew. 2 Gifford, also, was of the Bishop's faction,
and had been introduced into Cardinal Borromeo's
household by Dr. Owen Lewis. 3 In 1595, when Gifford

i. 10 ; Ely's Briefe Notes, p. 156 ; Tierney's Dodd, iii. p. lxxx. ;
Taunton's Jesuits, 227.) I have assumed that the leader of
the Welsh faction was John Bennett, and not his brother Edward,
though I have no positive proof of the fact. The two " noble
brothers," as they are called by Dr. Gifford, were prominent
anti- Jesuits in the " Wisbeach stirs " and the " Appellants
controversy." (Vide Gillow's Dictionary; Law's Conflict of
Jesuits and Seculars.) Dr. Barret, of Douay, in a letter of
Sept. 26th, 1596, to Parsons, calls one of the brothers " the
greatest dissembler and most perilous fellowe in a communitie
that ever I knew" (Douay Diary, p. 386). John Bennett
published a pamphlet, A Censure upon the Letter which Father
Parsons writ the gth of October 1599 ; The Hope of Peace, which
was printed at Frankfort 1601 ; and other anti- Jesuit publica-
tions. In 1 62 1 he was despatched to Rome, as agent of the
clergy, to petition the Pope for a bishop. Edward Bennett
was nominated in the same year with William Bishop for the
episcopate, and, on the death of Colleton, became dean of the
Chapter (Law's Conflict, Introduction, p. xxxvi.).

1 V. Foley's Jesuits, vol. vi. Cf. A Sparing Discovery, p. 32.

2 V. Challoner's Memoirs ; Austin's Christian Moderator.

3 Sega's Report (Foley, vol. vi.).

THE REFORMATION 239

was Dean of Lille, we find him writing from the Nuncio's
house at Brussels to Throgmorton (another anti- Jesuit) *
after the publication of Parsons' book vindicating
Philip of Spain's title to the English crown. " I have
made an abstract of Parsons' book," he says, :< and
given it to the Nuncio, who is mad at Parsons, and bid
me write to the Bishop of Cassano, and assure him that
Parsons had ruined himself." 2

In the same year appeared an anonymous pamphlet
describing " The State of the English Fugitives " on
the Continent. After dividing the exiles into four
factions, 3 the writer goes on to say : ' But above all
these there is one over-ruling faction that hath drawn
them into mightie partialities and strange extremities
one against another. The originall whereof sprong out
of the Romish Seminarie between the English and the
Welsh ; either partie had for favourer and protector
a man of great authoritie to which it leaned, Doctor
Allen for the one, and Doctor Lewis for the other, a
man verie wise and learned, and by reason of his age,
gravitie, and long continuance in those parts of great
authoritie in the Court of Rome, but always a verie

1 lb. Cf. Cecil's list (Dom., Eliz., vol. ccxxxviii. 181).

2 Hume's Treason and Plot.

3 " The one . . . pretend to be great statesmen and deepe
politicians. There is a second sort, wholy devoted to the follow-
ing and faction of the Jesuites, serving them as their espials and
instruments in whatsoever they imploy themselve. . . There
are others whom the rest generally in derision call by the name
of patriots. These indeed . . . are men of the greatest temperance
and best behavior, who howsoever they are in religion con-
trarily affected, yet you shall never heare them speake un-
reverently of her Majestic . . But of the rest, the fourth
and last are the best fellowes, for they flie but a very low pitch,
being men utterly voide both of learning, wit, and civilitie "
(pp. 48-9).

240 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

bitter enemie of the Jesuits. In fine each nation with
all vehemencie laboured for the presidentship and
superioritie one over the other." 1 The writer then
goes on to describe how inveterate was the racial feud
which was kindled in 1579, an d now it had survived
till 1595. A letter which Parsons wrote in July, 1598,
to Father Garnet confirms this estimate of the far-
reaching effects of the rebellion of the English students
against Dr. Morris of Clynog. " A third cause also
there was," he says, dealing with the continued dis-
turbances in the College, " no lesse important perhaps
than any of the rest, or more than both together, which
was a certayne disgust given at the first foundacion
of the colledge unto a certayne principall man of our
nation and his friends then resident in Rome, who
afterwards . . . was ever eyther in Re or in opinion a
backe unto them that would be discontented, to which
was adjoyned in these latter yeres (as appereth by their
own writings) another fountain of fomentacon ffrom
fflaunders that nurished this humor and wrought much
woe to the college wholy." 2

Parsons afterwards stated that he would never allow
two Welshmen to remain together in the College at
Rome " during such time as he was Rector, for if there
were three they would set the house on fire." 3 And
as late as 1626, when Lewis Owen, the spy, published
his Running Register* it is plain that his Welsh sym-

1 lb. p. 50.

2 Parsons' letter to Garnet, July 12 and 13, 1598. Archpriest
Controversy, Camden Society, i. 27.

3 Dom., Eliz., vol. xxxiv. Addenda.

4 Lewis Owen was probably a native of Merioneth (vide the
dedication to his Unmasking of all Popish Monks) . He entered
Christ Church, Oxford, in 1590, at the age of eighteen. He left

THE REFORMATION 241

pathies embittered and envenomed every reference to
the Jesuits, while his account of Owen Lewis and the
other Welshmen is always friendly, if not flattering.

It was small wonder that, when Allen died in 1594,
the rival factions should have fought for the vacant
Cardinal's hat. Owen Lewis, who had once before
been baulked in his ambition, entered the struggle
with a keenness which was neither edifying nor
dignified. 1 Parsons and the Jesuits did their utmost
to defeat his candidature. 2 The action of forty-three

without a degree and entered the Society of Jesus at Valladolid
{Allien. Oxon. Wood, ii. 480, though his name does not appear
on the books). He seems, however, to have taken an intense
dislike to the Jesuits, which was probably accentuated by the
hostility of John Roberts to the Society. He was in Valladolid
in 1605, in Rome (as a spy) in 16 10, and in Switzerland in 161 2.
He was acquainted with French, Italian and Spanish, and in
his books (Running Register, 1626 ; Unmasking of all Popish
Monks, etc., 1628 ; Speculum Jesuiticum, 1629) he is not ashamed
to avow the real nature of his profession. He died in 1629. As
he published a book called Catholique Traditions in 1609, it may
be inferred that he was not a spy at that date.

1 V. Lewis's letter to Dr. Humph. Ely in 1595 (Ely's Brief e
Notes, p. 95). As early as 1589, Lewis was angling for the
Cardinalate. He, or Morgan on his behalf, sent the Carthusian
Prior (John Arnold), " a Welshman," to persuade King Philip II.
to procure his promotion to that dignity (Dom., Eliz., ccxliii. 6).
After showing how the Bishop had despatched the Bishop of
Dunblane to Scotland, and how the Scotch wished for nothing
for themselves just then, Arnold went on to say : 'In the
meantime they [i.e. the Scotch) only ask your Majesty to forward
and promote your Bishop of Cassano, and that you will not rest
content until they have made him a Cardinal, in which position
he will be the more powerful to serve your Majesty. There is
no man in and out of England of English birth so worthy, learned,
virtuous, and dexterous in managing matters of importance as
he is. Since he was exiled twenty-eight years ago for his faith
he has always been employed in the ruling of dioceses and
provinces" (Spanish State Papers, May 26, 1589, pp. 542-3).

2 Lewis's letter to Dr. Ely, in 1595 (Ely's Brief e Notes, pp. 95-6) •
" We have lost our good Cardinal Allene. He made me executor

W.MW, Q

242 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

of the students at the Roman College in 1594 did not
tend to lessen their opposition. The students sent
a respectful supplication to Dr. Lewis, deploring the
want of bishops or ordinaries in England, and insisting
on the importance of the distribution of faculties being
placed in the hands of impartial and experienced persons
conversant with English affairs, but above all not in
the hands of the Jesuits. They finally implored Dr.
Lewis to take the duty on himself. 1 Cajetan, the
Cardinal Protector of the College, seconded their petition
to the Pope. The petition was unsuccessful, but it
showed Parsons the danger that threatened the Society
from the settled hostility of the Bishop of Cassano,
and made him more determined than ever to oppose his
elevation to the College of Cardinals. Sixtus V. did not
fill the vacancy, but his successor, Clement VIII. ,
decided to offer the Cardinal's hat to Dr. Lewis. Before
the Consistory, at which the formal election would take

of his will with three Cardinalls, and we ever have been frends,
though some evill disposed did seeke to seperat us for their owne
gaine and ill purposes. And now there is such a stincking stirre
in Flanders, Spaigne and Rome, to make Father Parsons Cardi-
nall, and so by consequente to exclude me, that it is allmost
incredible. But yet it is so, thoughe it be lick to have no effect,
but the discovering of Ambition, the blotting of that blessed
Religion, and discord among our nation and persecution against
me least I step before and stand betwene them and the fire.
The doers of this are but two or three of our nation, which tumble
all up and downe. All the rest, best and wisest, do love and
honor me. And in this Court it is merveilled at of strangers
high and low. They say I am an Italian, that I passe not for the
Nation, that I am Britannus and not verus Anglus. That I will
never returne into Inglande if it weare Catholick : false impudent
lies and slanders. . . . Indeed I am 61 years old, and am not
therefore like to see Ingland. ... I seeke not to be Cardinall,
because I know not, 'An illt status expediet et saluti animae meae
conveniat'."

1 Vide Law's Conflict, Introduction, p. xxix.

THE REFORMATION 243

place, could be held, the Bishop died, in October 1595,
having just missed attaining the summit of his ambition.
Death once more had come to the aid of the Society.
The last obstacle in Parsons' way seemed to have
disappeared. He was left, the one strong man among
the Catholic exiles — bold, daring, experienced, a firm
friend and a bitter foe. Another disturbance in the
Roman College gave Parsons a unique opportunity of
displaying his tact and power. He called the mal-
contents together, he reasoned with some and expostu-
lated with others. His knowledge of men and affairs
gave him a dominant advantage over the callow and
inexperienced youths. They were charmed by his
courteous manners, his sweet reasonableness, and his
tactful sympathy. They gladly yielded to his per-
suasions, and Parsons won a signal personal triumph.
In 1598 he was appointed, for the second time, Rector
of the College, a position which he filled till his death
in 1610.

Parsons, in 1598, occupied a strong and seemingly
impregnable position. His old foes were dead or
broken ; he was in Rome, holding an important office,
and possessing the ear of the Pope and the Cardinals'
College. He was trusted by the King of Spain, and
could always depend on his support in an emergency.
He was the founder of most of the English Colleges
on the Continent ; Douay was under Jesuit influence ;
he himself was Rector of the Roman seminary. The
avenue to the English mission field lay through the
Society of Jesus. One thing more was wanted. The
English students at Rome had deplored, in 1594, the
lack of bishops in England. Parsons decided on a
daring and novel experiment. In March, 1598, he

244 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

induced the Pope to appoint Father George Blackwell,
a man entirely under his influence, Archpriest over the
Catholic clergy in England. It is not for a Protestant
writer to dwell on the embittered controversy which
followed — a controversy whose merits are still to some
extent in issue among modern Catholics. The " Wis-
beach stirs," or the dissensions which broke out in 1595
between the Jesuit prisoners at Wisbeach Castle and
the Secular priests who were their fellow-prisoners, were
now repeated and emphasised in the " Archpriest
controversy," which finally led to the famous appeal
to Rome of the Secular clergy against the domination
of the Jesuits. All that need be recorded of these
squabbles here is that the Welshmen engaged in either
dispute were invariably arrayed against the Jesuits. 1

But these efforts of the Welsh Catholics, consistent
and long-continued though they were, would probably

1 E.g., in addition to the two Bennetts, Roger Cadwallador,
who was afterwards hanged, in 1610, at Leominster, was one
of the " appellants " in 1600. One of the most interesting of
the Wisbeach prisoners was Jonas Meredith, one of the leaders
of the Welsh faction in the Roman College in 1579 (Dom., Eliz.,
ccxli. 26; ib. 1596; ib. cclvi. 91). Meredith was committed
to prison in 1586, and opposite to his name Thomas Philipps
wrote " worthy to be hanged " {Dom., Eliz., cxcv. 72, Dec. 1586).
He must have been arrested almost immediately upon landing
in England, for earlier in the year Thomas Rogers wrote to
Walsingham from Paris : " Morgan and Paget have sent Jonas
Meredith, at the Queen of Scots' expense, to Rome to salve their
credit, impaired by Arundel and his party. He sent articles to
get Meredith into the Inquisition " (Dom., Eliz., vol. xxix. p. 167,
Add.). Meredith seems to have escaped the Inquisition only to
be imprisoned in England. In 1588, Anthony Bacon begged for
his release from Walsingham. " Powel and Jonas Meredith of
Wales," he wrote, " prisoners only for religion " (Dom., Eliz.,
vol. xxx. p. 251, Add.). But Meredith was not released, for
he is mentioned as being at Wisbeach in 1592. Vide also S.P.O.,
Dom., Eliz., vol. ccxxxviii. No. 181.

THE REFORMATION 245

have been ineffectual, but for the revival of the English
Benedictine Order in the early years of the seventeenth
century. The life and labours of John Roberts, monk
and martyr, have at last received something like due
recognition at the hands of Catholic historians, 1 though
none of them seems to have realised how far racial
feelings and prejudices dictated his course of action.

John Roberts was born in 1575 in Trawsfynydd in
Merionethshire. At St. John's College, Oxford, he was
contemporary with two men who afterwards became
famous ecclesiastics. One of them was John Jones, who
was born in the same year as Roberts, in Llanfrynach
in Brecknock, and who was afterwards known " in
religion " as Father Leander. The other was Jones's
room-mate, 2 William Laud, afterwards Archbishop
of Canterbury. Another of his contemporaries (and
probably a friend) 3 at Oxford was David Baker, also

1 Vide, e.g., Bede Camm's Life ; Downside Review, vol. xiv. 44
seq. ; Taunton's English Benedictines.

2 He is mentioned as Laud's " chamber-fellow " in Laud's trial
(Works of Laud).

3 Baker probably knew Leander Jones — for Llanfrynach is not
far from Abergavenny. It is certain that they were, in after
life, intimate friends. As Leander was in the same College as
John Roberts, and a room-mate of Laud's, it is more than probable
that the four were familiar at the University, though the three
were senior in academical standing to John Roberts. Roberts
matriculated at St. John's in 1595 ; Leander Jones in 1591 ;
Baker in 1590. Leander, however, became Fellow of the College,
and was in residence when Roberts matriculated. In spite of
their English surname, the Bakers of Abergavenny were an
old Welsh family. Their original name was Sitsilt (Cecil), and
they were descended, like Sir W. Cecil, from Robert Sitsilt, of
Alltyrynys. Roger Sitsilt married Anne, the daughter of
Sir John Scudamore, and the granddaughter of Owen Glyndwr.
Their son Thomas adopted the name of Baker. (V. Book of
Golden Grove, c. 655.) Father Augustine Baker was therefore
eighth in descent from the illustrious Welsh patriot.

246 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

born in 1575 at Abergavenny, where his father was
Lord Abergavenny's steward.

It is curious, and not altogether unprofitable, to
reflect what influence these four friends exercised on
each other's subsequent careers. They were, all four,
men of great capacity and profound learning. As yet
they were Protestants in name, but Catholic in feeling
and sympathy. 1 Though outwardly conforming, they
became suspects even in Oxford, tolerant though the
University has ever been of any leaning towards Rome.
Leander Jones was sent down from the University on
suspicion of being a Catholic. Soon afterwards, in
1596, he met Father Gerard, 2 the celebrated Jesuit,
who effected his conversion. He sailed for the English
College which had recently been established by Parsons
at Valladolid, but on the way out he changed his mind, 3
and after living in Spain for two years he joined the
Benedictine Order.

John Roberts 4 and David Baker left Oxford to study
law in the London Inns of Court. Roberts is described
as " a Lawyer's clerk in Furnivall's Inn," 5 and it would
seem, therefore, that he intended to be called to the

1 The Liber Primi Examinis of Valladolid states that John
Jones " venit hue 13 Decembris 1596, natus in comitatu Here-
fordiensi honestis parentibus . . . studuit Oxonii . . . ipse etiam
semper corde catholicus." (V. Camm's Bened. Martyr, p. 286.)

2 Father Gerard at the time was a prisoner in the Chink.

3 The story goes that while on board the vessel he saw a vision
which induced him to join the Benedictines. But the story
cannot be entirely accepted, for Leander arrived at Valladolid
in Dec. 1596, and only joined the Benedictines in 1598.

4 Lewis Owen's Running Register. Roberts was only two
years in Oxford, and therefore left in 1597. Baker commenced
eating his dinners at Lincoln's Inn (removing thence to the
Temple) a year or two previously.

5 Lewis Owen's Running Register.

THE REFORMATION 247

Bar. In 1598, while on a visit to Paris, he, like his
friend Leander Jones, was converted by the Jesuits.
Thence he proceeded to the College at Valladolid. 1
It was not long, however, before he conceived the
same aversion to the Society of Jesus as nearly all
the Welshmen of that age seem to have entertained.
Lewis Owen, the spy, 2 tells the story with dramatic
vividness : 3

" In the latter end of Queen Elizabeth there was
but one English monk living in the world (as the Papists
themselves do report). . . . And therefore many of the
English fugitives, residing in forraine countries (who
were in great hopes to have a full restauration of their
religion after the Queen's decease), viz., Dr. Gifford,
now Archbishop of Rheims in France, Dr. Bagshaw,
Dr. Smith, Dr. Stephens, and many other Secular
Priests (who were of a faction against the Jesuits)
consulted together how to oppose and withstand their
ambitious encroachments and usurping authoritie. . . .

1 Roberts entered the College at Valladolid on Oct. 18th, 1598.

2 It is certain, from internal evidence, that Lewis Owen was
friendly disposed to his countryman John Roberts. Dom. Bede
Camm and Taunton (followed by the D.N.B.) assume that the
pedigree of John Roberts, of Llanfrothen, given in Lewis Dwnn's
Heraldic Visitation is that of the Benedictine monk's father, and
that John Roberts's son-in-law (the husband of his daughter
Blance) Cadwallador Owen is identical with Lewis Owen, the spy.
The assumption is however believed to be ill-founded. The
identity of John Roberts will be found discussed at length in the
writer's article in the Cymtnrodorion Transactions, for 1901-2,
App. F. A facsimile letter by John Roberts is also given. It
is proved that the martyr had no relationship with John Roberts
of Llanfrothen, and it is suggested that he may have been the
grandson of John ap Robert ap Howel of Dol-y-ddwyrid, Festiniog,
whose pedigree is given in Lewis Dwnn's Heraldic Visitation.

3 Lewis Owen's Running Register, which contains a very full
and detailed account of the incident.

248 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

They solicited many of the English students that then
lived in any of the English colleges or seminaries in
those foreign parts to become religious monks of the
Order of St. Benet. . . . Whereupon one John Roberts,
who . . . was then a student at the English College
at Valladolid, by the perswasions of these men, went
out of the same college. ..."

It is perhaps impossible now to discover how far Dr.
Gifford and the rest were directly responsible for the
severance of John Roberts's connection with the Jesuits.
The probabilities are strongly in favour of the statement
which is roundly made by Lewis Owen. We know
that Dr. Gifford was keenly opposed to the Jesuits. 1
Dr. Smith, as we have seen, was bitterly detested just
about this time by Parsons. 2 The Jesuits themselves
looked upon the English fugitives in Flanders as " a
fountayne of fomentacon," 3 and later on Parsons
ascribes the foundation of the Benedictine College at
Douay to anti- Jesuit machinations. 4 The fact that the
two Oxford Welshmen — Roberts and Leander Jones —
should have left the Jesuits and joined the Benedictine
Order about the same time 5 is surely not without
significance.

1 Vide, e.g., Owen's Running Register and Gilford's letter to
Throgmorton on March ioth, 1595, which has already been cited.
Gifford had gone to Rome as Allen's chaplain when the latter
was raised to the Cardinalate in 1587, and had been introduced
into Borromeo's household by Dr. Owen Lewis.

2 State Papers, Dom., Eliz., vol. xxxiv., Addenda, n. 42, ii.

3 Parsons to Father Garnet, July 12th, 1598 (Archpriest
Controversy, Camden Society, i. 27).

4 Add. MSS. Brit. Museum, No. 21,203, folio 16, quoted in
Law's Jesuits and Seculars, cxxv.

6 Roberts joined the Order of St. Benedict at Valladolid in 1599 ;
Leander in October of the previous year at St. Martin's Abbey,
Compostella.

THE REFORMATION 249

Upon leaving the College, Roberts took refuge in a
Benedictine Abbey close by. The Jesuit fathers pursued
him with complaints against his character. He was
accused of heinous sins, and the Abbot who had sheltered
him became alarmed. Roberts assured him that the
charges were false, and that his accusers would receive
him back in the College with open arms if he were
willing to return. He was bidden to put his assertion
to the test. He did so, and was welcomed back with
gladness. The Abbot was convinced that Roberts
had been traduced, and when he fled once more from
the College, the Abbey gates were thrown open to
him, and he was admitted into the Order of St. Bene-
dict. Presently the Benedictines determined to send
missionaries to England. " Whereof Father Roberts
was the first that had his mission from the Pope . . .
which made him not a little proud that hee should be
a second Augustine Monke to convert and reconcile his
countrymen to the Roman Anti-Christ. ... At length
(having obtained, or at least usurped — for he was of
an aspiring spirit — the title of a Provincial x of the
English Benedictine Monks then resident in England,
who were not many) he became very famous among the
English Papists." 2

But the revival of the Benedictine Order in England
was soon seen to be impossible so long as all the English
Seminaries on the Continent were in the hands of the
Jesuits. Roberts, therefore, with that instinctive ten-
dency to found a college which marked the Welsh

1 The title of *' Provincial " was only used at a later date, and
John Roberts never actually assumed it {v. Taunton's English
Benedictines, vol. ii.), but John Roberts probably exercised
authority over the other Benedictine monks in England.

2 Lewis Owen's Running Register, p. 89.

250 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

Catholics of that age as well as the Welsh Protestants
of our day, determined to establish a Benedictine
Seminary at Douay. One of the men who directed his
attention to this work was John ithell, a Welshman,
who was a chaplain of Notre Dame. 1 Among his most
powerful supporters were Dr. Gifford, Dean of Lille, and
his old college contemporary, Leander Jones. In 1605
the Benedictine College of St. Gregory's at Douay was
opened. The effect was great and far-reaching, if we
may accept the conclusions of modern Catholic writers.
" The securing of the foundation of the monastery,"
according to Mr. Edmund Bishop, 2 " was the breaking,
the breaking beyond the hope of repair, of the net that
with steady, long skilled, and inexorable hand, was
being drawn round the clergy to render them helpless
captives." " The establishment of St. Gregory's once
for all broke down," says the most recent historian of the
English Benedictine Order, 3 " the monopoly hitherto
existing, and by degrees the Clergy emancipated them-
selves " ; and the same writer goes on to say that " in
the well-nigh three centuries that have passed since
its foundation, St. Gregory's can point to a past, taken
all in all, such as many an ancient abbey might envy." 4
That the revival of the Benedictine Order, and the
establishment of St. Gregory's, were the culmination
and final embodiment of the Welsh protest against the

1 He is probably identical with the " John Ishell " who is
sometimes mentioned in Catholic writings. Ithell was a native
of the diocese of Llandaff, and was ordained in 1581. Foley, vi.
730 ; Welldon's Notes ; Taunton's English Benedictines.

2 Downside Review, vol. xvi. p. 34.

3 Taunton's English Benedictines, ii. 67.

4 St. Gregory's, Douay, was the predecessor and parent of
St. Gregory's Downside.

THE REFORMATION 251

Jesuit policy is clear. Immediately Parsons heard of
the project of founding the College at Douay, " he drew
up a memorial setting forth, as usual, the crimes of
his adversaries. They were men, he said, who were
notorious for their share as students in the rebellions
and disorders of the Roman College. They had entered
among the Benedictines only to vex and oppose the
Jesuits. They had, in England, sided with the Appel-
lants (i.e. in the Arch-priest controversy), they were in
treaty with an heretical Government, and one of them
at least had defended the oath of allegiance." x

When we remember that " the rebellions and disorders
of the Roman College " were due to the Welsh and
English feud, that the Bennetts — the leaders of the
Welsh faction at Rome in 1594-6 — were active sup-
porters of the appellants, that the two most prominent
of the Benedictine converts were Roberts and Leander
Jones, and that they were also mainly responsible for
the establishment of St. Gregory's, it will be easy to
understand the settled aversion of Parsons to Welsh
students at the College at Rome. Nor can there be
any doubt that the Benedictines were opposed to the
employment of physical force for the conversion of
England. Lewis Owen, the spy, was perhaps at this
time in the inner counsels of the monks. His baseness
had not been discovered, and he was likely, as the
fellow-countryman and neighbour of John Roberts, to
be entirely trusted. In his Unmasking of Popish Monks
he says : 2 " Our new upstart English Benedictine
monks would have the world believe that their Order
first planted the Christian religion in this land, and

1 Quoted in Law's Conflict of Jesuits and Seculars, cxxv.

2 P. 12 (published in 1628).

252 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

that the monks of their Order were ever godly and
religious men, and therefore not to be ranked with the
Jesuits, who are great Statesmen, for they (good monks)
meddle not with matters of state, or with king's affaires."
John Roberts had done much, but there was one
thing which he had omitted to do. There was only
one Benedictine monk left in England at the beginning
of the seventeenth century, one Buckley, called in
religion Father Sigebert, 1 and perhaps himself a
Welshman. He was the sole survivor of the West-
minster Congregation, the last representative of the
oldest Order, the repository of its storied past, and
the link which kept unbroken the succession from
Augustine of Canterbury. Curiously enough, it was
again a Welshman that came to the rescue — David
Baker, of Abergavenny, the friend and contemporary
of John Roberts and Leander Jones at Oxford. 2 After
leaving the University, Baker was called to the Bar.
His uncle, his mother's brother, Dr. David Lewis, was

1 It is not known where Sigebert Buckley was born. In the
list of Wisbeach prisoners he is allocated to Staffordshire, but
that may have only indicated that he was ministering in that
county. The Buckley family in North Wales gave one or two
of its members to the work of Catholic propaganda.

2 Baker's mother was a daughter of Lewis ap John, the Vicar
of Abergavenny. Baker was educated at Christ Church Hospital,
London, and Broadgates Hall College, Oxford. He matriculated
in 1590 ; in 1597 he entered Clifford's Inn and the Inner Temple.
In early life he was irreligious, and it was only a sudden shock,
caused by a narrow escape from death, that turned his thoughts
to religion. He was reconciled to the Catholic Church by a
priest named Richard Lloyd. In 1619 he went to Rheims, where
he was ordained by Gifford. He wrote Apostolatus Benedictorum
in Anglia in English, and Father Leander turned his notes
into Latin. He was the author of several other works, dealing
with asceticism and the history of his Order. He died of the
plague in London in 1641.

THE REFORMATION 253

one of the Judges of the Admiralty, and Baker himself
became Recorder of his native town. Being converted
to Catholicism, Baker abandoned his profession and
gave himself up to a life of prayer and meditation.
He became known for the rigour of his asceticism, and
for the depth of his historical learning. Coming across
Buckley, his legal training enabled him to realise the
importance of maintaining the succession of the Order
of St. Benedict in England unbroken. On November
21st, 1607, two secular priests and novices — Sadler and
Maihew — were received by Father Sigebert as members
of the Benedictine Order, and shortly after David
Baker was admitted by the old monk. This gave the
Order a very real advantage over its rivals. It could
now claim descent from the original converters of
England. It made it a national English institution.
It was henceforward no mere foreign body, owing
allegiance to alien ecclesiastics. It was an English
Order, and, as such, ready and willing to obey the
sovereign in temporal matters. It had its roots in the
past, and its history was the history of religion in
England. Fantastic and unreal as such a conception
may appear to be to some Protestants who appeal to
the individual conscience and not to tradition and the
authority of the Church, it was one of vital moment
and direct significance to men whose every instinct
and training had taught them to attach the gravest
weight to such considerations. It is not a mere coin-
cidence that in these memorable matters the Jesuits
should have been thwarted and checked by the efforts
of Welshmen. 1 Their educational monopoly, and their

1 The part which Father Augustine Baker played in the pre-
servation of the succession of the English Benedictine Order

254 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

pre-eminence in England, were irreparably shattered
by the timely revival of the Benedictine Order ; and
that revival was primarily and mainly due to the energy
and foresight of the Welsh Catholics. At first, no
doubt, the hostility of the Welsh to the Society of
Jesus was based for the most part on personal con-
siderations.

But as time went on, and the policy of the Jesuits
developed under the forceful guidance of Aquaviva
and Parsons, that opposition became more enlightened
and dispassionate. Welshmen could not and did not
forget the part which the Jesuit Fathers had played
in the racial feud which had broken out in the
Roman College in 1579. Nor can it be supposed that
they were oblivious of the fact that Elizabeth Tudor
had Welsh blood in her veins. Just as the Bishop
of Ross and the Bishop of Dunblane 1 always supported
the pretensions of the Stuarts to the succession of

has not been always understood by Catholic writers. Sweeney,
in his Life of Baker, disagrees with Father Cressy's statement
(Life of Baker) that Baker was " the chief instrument in bringing
about the restoration of the English Congregation. He was
in Italy at the time that Father Preston and Beech were active
in their labours for this end. He was not admitted to profession
nor aggregated till some time after Fathers Sadler and Maihew "
(p. 25). The statement of facts is correct, but Taunton (English
Benedictines, ii. 72-8) has shown that it was " Baker who had
first conceived the idea of the continuation of the ancient English
Benedictine line. ... In spite of difficulties and delays, Baker
was destined to be the sole direct link, by immediate profession,
between the old Congregation and the new." Father Augustine
himself has told how he first conceived the idea by picking up
" an old printed ' Turrecremata ' upon owr rule . . . among the
booksellers of Duck Lane " (quoted in Allanson's M.S. History
of the English Congregation, and printed by Taunton, vol. ii.
PP- 74-5)-

1 Vide English Fugitives, p. 51 ; Froude's Hist, of England.

THE REFORMATION 255

the English throne, whether their representative was
Catholic or Protestant, so the Welsh Catholics insisted
that the English sovereign should be a descendant
of the Tudors, whatever his religion might chance to
be. This racial affection for the Cymric dynasty gave
point and force to the vaguer feeling of distrust of an
armed invasion and hatred of Spanish rule, which was
entertained by men like Griffith Roberts and Thomas
Morgan. As long as Owen Lewis lived, he was looked
upon as the embodiment of this feeling and the leader
of the Welsh Catholics on the Continent. When his
followers were left, at his death, with no effective
opponent to Parsons, the genius of three Welshmen
raised an insuperable obstacle to Jesuit ambition by
reviving the Benedictine Order.

Long and glorious though its traditions were, it could
not rival, however, the Society of Jesus, in recent achieve-
ments. While the Order of Benedict was represented
by a few old and broken monks, the vigorous Society
of Ignatius was sowing the land of Britain with the
blood of martyrs. From the death of Campion the
Jesuits were looked upon as the most devoted and
self-sacrificing of the Catholics. The Benedictines had
a great history, but they had no modern martyrs.
The culminating glory of John Roberts's services to
his faith came in 1610. He had been four times im-
prisoned in England, but he had always been released
through the intercession of highly-placed friends. He
had been expelled in 1606, but four years later he took
his life in his hands and returned. He was arrested
not long afterwards in Holborn, over against Chancery
Lane, and on December 8 he was hanged, drawn, and
quartered at Tyburn. The founder of St. Gregory's

256 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

became its proto-martyr. 1 He not only sealed his testi-
mony with his blood, but he opened a new and noble
chapter in the annals of his Order. His successor as
Prior of St. Gregory's was Father Leander, whose name,
says a modern writer, " will ever be illustrious in the
annals of the English Benedictines as one of their
greatest men — one who was a lover of his brethren and
of his country." 2 For over twenty years he remained
Prior of St. Gregory's, and Professor of Theology and
Hebrew at the University of Douay. In 1634 he came
over to England on the invitation of his old friend and
room-mate at St. John's, who had by this time become
Archbishop of Canterbury. Laud was anxious, if
possible, to secure Catholic re-union by reconciling the
Church of England with the Church of Rome. To many
earnest and sincere minds such a consummation seemed
feasible at the time. No one could be expected to
have greater influence with Laud than his old friend
Leander Jones ; no one could be found with a more
conciliatory temper or with a finer sense of the limits
to which concession could go. The last service which
Father Leander did to his Church was to endeavour to
arrange the terms of re-union. 3 Before a reconciliation
was, or could be, brought about, Leander Jones breathed

1 George Gervaise is the only monk of the O.S.B. who is men-
tioned as having been martyred before Roberts. Gervaise died
in 1608, Roberts in 1610 (Pollen's Acts of the Martyrs, 381).
His remains were taken secretly to Douay, with the exception of
his right leg, which was intercepted on the way and buried in
St. Saviour's, Southwark, by the orders of Archbishop Abbot,
and an arm which was buried in his old monastery of St. Martin's
Compostella.

2 Taunton's English Benedictines, ii. 161.

3 For an account of the negotiations, see Taunton's English
Benedictines, ii. 11 8- 161.

THE REFORMATION 257

his last, in London, in December, 1635. x With him
perished the last hope of Laud. Events were marching
rapidly. The tide of Puritanism was rising day by
day. It had even then reached the shores of Wales.
William Wroth, of Llanfaches, was preparing to found
the first Puritan Church in Wales, in the heart of Catholic
Monmouth. 2 The death of Father Augustine Baker
in 1641 closed this most interesting chapter in the
history of Wales. Other Welshmen after him died
in the old faith ; but he was the last Welsh Catholic
who played a large part in the history of Catholi-
cism in England. For some time to come Welshmen
remained as sheep without a shepherd. The Great
Rebellion left few living witnesses to the ancient religion
of Wales ; the restored Monarchy, while it sent Philip
Evans, the Jesuit, to the scaffold, left Vavasour Powell,
the Puritan, to rot in the Fleet Prison. But the light
that was kindled by the early Puritans in Wales was
never extinguished. It was fanned into fierce flame
by the Methodist Revival of the eighteenth century.
For a century and a half Wales has been as uncom-
promisingly Protestant as it was once devotedly Catholic.
It is not my function — even if it were possible — to
adjust praise or blame, to judge, and still less to condemn.
I have endeavoured to place the facts, not so much on
record — for that has already been done — as in their
proper setting. It would not become a Protestant
writer to take side in Catholic controversies, or to decide
between the Jesuits on the one hand and the Welsh

1 He is said to have died " hated by none but by the puritans
and Jesuits " (Athenae Oxoniensis, ii. 604, Bliss edition).

2 Though Wroth began to preach in the Puritan fashion about
1630, he did not actually start a dissenting cause until 1639
(Rees's History of Protestant Nonconformity in Wales, p. 41).

W.M.W. K

258 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

Catholics on the other. But Welshmen cannot, at
least, be denied the satisfaction of pointing out, not
only that the Welsh policy has been justified in our
own days, 1 but that even in those far-off days of trial
and exile, their countrymen allowed no personal regrets
for the land of their birth, no sense of injustice at their
undeserved exile, no resentment at the torture and
execution of some of their noblest compatriots, no
impatient anger at the waste of their lives, to dim their
faith in the final inevitable triumph of truth, or to lessen
their regard for the freedom of the little nation from
which they were sprung, and the larger kingdom with
which they had been incorporated.

1 See, for example, the answers of Father Vaughan, S.J., in his
action against the Rock Newspaper Company, reported in the
Times of June 4, 1902. Cf. Simpson's Life of Campion, p. 343 ;
Froude, Hist, of Eng. vol. xi. c. 63 ; Macaulay's Hist, of Eng.
vol. i. pp. 355 seq ; Law's Conflict of Jesuits and Seculars.

CHAPTER VI

NONCONFORMITY

The Welsh people, as they gladly welcomed the political
union with England, notwithstanding the many griev-
ances which it brought in its train, were equally ready
to accept the religious settlement which the Tudors
effected. They clung to the old faith and practices,
but loyalty to the Welsh dynasty prevented any Pil-
grimage of Grace, or even a plot, to be organised in
Wales against the Reformation. 1 For over a hundred
years after the breach with Rome, no Protestant Non-
conformist Church was founded in the Principality.
The Established Church had the field entirely to itself.
Catholicism decayed and withered through lack of
priestly ministrations. Dr. Griffith Roberts in 1585,
in his preface to the Drych Cristionogawl, bewailed the
ignorance of the younger generation. " I hear," he
wrote, " that many places in Wales, yea, whole counties,
have not a single Christian within them, but live like
animals, most of them knowing nothing of righteousness,
but merely keeping the name of Christ in memory." The
wholesale spoliation of Church property led to a scan-
dalous amount of pluralism. There was no real attempt
on the part of the Government to force the beneficed
clergy to maintain curates, though a Pluralities Act was
passed as early as the reign of Edward VI. Individual

1 Cf. Owen Edwards, Wales, p. 340.
259

260 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

Churchmen, both lay and clerical, did their best to
battle against the difficulties with which the Reformed
Church was confronted. Sir John Price of Brecon
and William Salesbury translated portions of the Bible. 1
In 1563 an Act of Parliament was passed, probably at the
instigation of Dr. Richard Davies, the Bishop of St.
David's, who had taken refuge in Geneva during the
Marian persecution, directing the four Welsh Bishops
and the Bishop of Hereford under penalties to prepare
a Welsh edition of the Scriptures by 1566. In the
same year a patent was granted to William Salesbury
and John Waley for the sole printing in the Welsh
tongue for seven years of the Bible, the Book of Com-
mon Prayer, and the Homilies. The translation of the
Prayer Book was undertaken by Richard Davies, and
the New Testament by William Salesbury, with the
assistance of the Bishop and of Thomas Huet, Precentor
of St. David's. The Prayer Book was issued in 1567
and was followed in the same year by the New Testament.
In 1588 appeared Dr. William Morgan's Welsh Bible, a
monumental work in which he was assisted by Dr.
David Powel, the Vicar of Ruabon, Archdeacon Edmund
Prys, Dr. John Davies of Mallwyd, and others. Arch-
bishop Whitgift and Gabriel Goodman, a native of
Ruthin, who had been appointed Dean of Westminster,
rendered pecuniary aid. 2 Bishop Morgan's translation

1 Sir John Price's Yn y llyvyr hwnn (1546) contained transla-
tions of the Lord's Prayer, the Ten Commandments, and two
or three verses from the New Testament. Salesbury's Kynniver
Hith a ban (1551) consisted of the Epistles and Gospels as they
are found in the Book of Common Prayer.

2 For a complete account of the various editions of the Welsh
Bible, see Ballinger's Bible in Wales, prefaced by an excellent
" Address " by Sir John Williams, and an exhaustive " Intro
duction."

NONCONFORMITY 261

became the canon of Welsh prose, for the Authorised
Version of 1620, edited by Bishop Parry, was largely
founded on it. Its stately diction, its scholarly accuracy,
its pure and idiomatic style, and its sonorous eloquence
have never been surpassed in any language. Parry
removed some of the " Hebraisms " which were thought
to mar Bishop Morgan's text, but modern Welsh scholars
are by no means certain that the Authorised Version
was an improvement on its predecessor. 1 In 1621,
Archdeacon Prys published his rhymed version of the
Psalms, which became at once popular and is even still
not entirely unknown. In 1630 " the little Bible " 2 was
published at the expense of two London Aldermen of
Welsh extraction, Sir Thomas Middleton and Rowland
Heylin. This was the first time that a Welsh Bible
became available for the people. Bishop Morgan's
Bible and Bishop Parry's Authorised Version were
designed only for use in the parish churches. 3 Great,

1 See Chapter III. of Ballinger's Bible in Wales. Parry
followed the English Authorised Version of 161 1. " Selyf "
became " Solomon," " Suddas " became " Judas " (the " J " was,
however, first used by Stephen Hughes), " Caersalem " became
" Jerusalem," etc. The un-Welsh form of " Yr Iesu " (6 TrjcroOs)
was adopted in place of " Iesu," and the English idiom " efe a
atebodd ac a ddywedodd " took the place of " efe gan ateb a
ddywedodd." It is claimed that Bishop Morgan anticipated
some of the amendments of the Revised Version.

2 For a full and interesting account of the " Bibl bach," or
" y Bibl coron " (so called from its price being 5s.) see Chapter III.
of the Bible in Wales. It has been stated that 1500 copies were
printed and that Cradock and Powel found about 1000 copies
in the printer's hands in London twenty years later. But I have
been unable to find any confirmation of this tradition.

3 Estimates vary as to the number of copies printed. Dr. Rees
puts the figure of Morgan's Bible at 600 ; Sir John Williams in
the Preface to the Bible in Wales seems inclined to believe
that 1000 copies of each edition were printed. The number of

262 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

and indeed priceless, as was the value of this work, it
was all (with the exception of the Authorised Version)
done through the initiative and piety of individuals,
not " in consequence of the Act of Parliament, nor of
commands from the Queen." x The only attempt to bring
the Bible to the homes of the common people was made
possible through the generosity of two London laymen.
But the people had, owing to lack of educational
opportunities, sunk into woeful ignorance. They, for
the most part, could not read Welsh and they under-
stood little or no English. Vicar Pritchard's rhymes
are full of allusions to the contrast between Wales
and England.

Pob merch tincer gyda'r Saeson
Feder ddarllen llyfrau mawrion
Ni wyr merched llawer scweier
Gyda ninne ddarllen pader.

Big books can well be read
By an English tinker's daughter ;
In "Wales a squire's daughter
Cannot even read her ' pater.'

Rowland Vaughan, Caergai, in the introduction to
the Y mar fey o Dduwioldef (1630) almost echoed the
words of the old Vicar. 2

There were few " preachers of the word." John

ecclesiastical parishes in the four Welsh sees and of " border
parishes " in 1901 was 1014 (Report of the Welsh Church Com-
mission, p. 6). It could scarcely have been less than 900 in 1588.

1 See Note 3, page 142.

2 " Mwyaf peth sydd yn dyfod yn erbyn ein hiaith ni ydyw,
anhawsed gan y Cymru roddi eu plant i ddyscu, fel y maen well
gan lawer dyn fod ei etifedd yn fuwch yn ei fyw na threulio
gwerth buwch i ddyscu iddo ddarllain ; ac ni cheir yn Lloegr
nemmawr o eurych (tinker), neu scubwr simneiau na fedro
ddarllain, ac na fyddo ai lyfr dan ei gessel yn yr Eglwys, neu yn
ei ddarllain pan fyddor achos."

NONCONFORMITY 263

Penry never ceases to complain of the "dumb minis-
ters." l It was indeed the settled policy of Elizabeth
to discourage preaching, lest the existing settlement of
religion might be disturbed. Whitgift's successors were
no more favourably disposed to the exercise of what
might become a dangerous gift. They had always
before their eyes the awful example of Presbyterian
Scotland. It is no wonder, therefore, that the condition
of the people became worse as time went on. Vicar
Pritchard states that not one in a hundred of his country-
men could read the Bible. The author of Carwr y
Cymry (1631) gives an even worse description of the
condition of Wales. " Yea, give me leave, my dear
brethren, to tell you (a thing I am sorry to be compelled
to say) that there can be found in every one of the Sees
of Wales 40 or 60 churches, with no one in them on
Sundays in the long summer days, when the roads are
driest and the weather is mildest." 2 John Edwards,

1 George Owen, in his " Dialogue " (Owen's Pembrokeshire,
iii. p. 98) gives a better account of the state of Pembrokeshire.
Penry, in his Humble Supplication (1587), had said that " at
this day we have not 12 in all our country that doe discharge
theire duty in any good sort." Owen, to " confounde a shameless
mann," stated that " there is within this sheere eight or ten
Godly and Lerned ministers and Preachers of the Gospell which
travell and laboure in the Lordes vinearde." Phillimore (Ecc.
Law, i. 1023, ed. 1873) says of the clergy of the time of Elizabeth
that being ignorant and not affected to the Reformation they
were not allowed to preach without a licence, but were only
permitted to read the homilies. See also Owen's Pembrokeshire,
vol. iii. p. 99 n.

2 The author is unknown, but as the book was an appeal to the
Welsh clergy, it has been assumed (e.g. by Rees, p. 194, and
Rowlands, p. 210) that he was " a pious clergyman." Rowlands
in his Bibliography suggests the author was the Rev. Oliver
Thomas of Oswestry, who signed the Covenant in 1647. Dr. Rees
is wrong in ascribing the publication of the book to the year 1677.
A second edition appeared in that year.

264 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

in the preface to his translation of the Marrow of Modem
Divinity (1651), states that " of the home-keeping
Welshmen, yea, among the scholarly noblemen, yea,
among the educated clerics, scarcely one in fifteen can
read and write Welsh." He goes on to say that he
had never seen more than five printed Welsh books. 1
In 1646 Cradock, in a sermon delivered before the
House of Commons, said that " in thirteene counties
(of Wales) there should not be above thirteene con-
scientious ministers who in these times expressed
themselves firmly and constantly faithful to the Parlia-
ment, and formerly preached profitably in the Welsh
language twice every Lord's day." 2 In the same
year, in the preface to his Catechism, The Scripture's
Concord, Vavasour Powell stated that " having finished
this little Catechism in English, it is translated into
Welsh for my dear and soul-hungering countrymen,
who have not to my knowledge any, excepting one (if
one) of this nature, nay, far worse, have not of godly,
able Welsh ministers, one for a county, nor one Welsh
Bible for 500 families." 3 Another, writing in 1649,
witnessed that " among 20 families there can scarce
one Welsh Bible be found and as for the English Bible,
in the family where any is, it is but uselesse in respect
of the generalitie of those which know nothing and
understand nothing in that tongue." 4

1 The translator of Madruddyn y Difynyddiaeth Diweddaraf
was a Monmouthshire man who bewails his imperfect knowledge
of Welsh, because he had been born on the banks of the Severn,
" where English has the upper hand over the British." •

2 The Saints Fulness of Joy, p. 34.

3 Quoted in Rees's Nonconformity, pp. 68-9.

4 " Sail y Grefydd Gristnogawl," quoted by J. H. Davies in the
Transactions of the Liverpool Welsh Society, 1897-8, p. 67.

NONCONFORMITY 265

To this condition, then, had Wales been brought
after one hundred years of the Protestant Reformation.
The evidence of the degeneration of the people is over-
whelming in volume, and as it is derived from such varied
sources, it cannot be lightly set aside as exaggerated,
still less as untrue. The magnitude of the evil, however,
roused the conscience of earnest men. The day of the
" hot-gospellers " was about to dawn — some of them
men trained in the schools of Oxford and Cambridge,
others " mean fellows " of no great learning, tailors,
shoemakers, labourers, but all of them fired by genuine
enthusiasm for the salvation of souls and the glory of
God. They were rejected by the Established Church,
and they were sometimes evilly entreated by their
countrymen. But they saved the soul of Wales, and
wrought a greater miracle than they themselves knew.

Macaulay, in one of his most incisive passages, con-
trasts the wise comprehension of the Church of Rome
with the narrow exclusiveness of the Church of England
in their dealings with enthusiasts. He describes how
not infrequently in England a poor tinker or coal-
heaver becomes " converted," and after emerging from
the Valley of the Shadow of Death, " there arises in his
mind a natural desire to impart to others the thoughts
of which his own heart is full, to warn the careless, to
comfort those who are troubled in spirit." But though
' he has no quarrel with the establishment, no objection
to its formularies, its government, or its vestments,"
the Anglican Church will have nothing to do with him,
and he is driven into Nonconformity. " Far different
is the policy of Rome. Place Ignatius Loyola at Oxford.
He is certain to become the head of a formidable seces-
sion. Place John Wesley at Rome. He is certain to

266 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

be the first General of a New Society devoted to the
interests and honour of the Church. Place St. Theresa
in London. Her restless enthusiasm ferments into mad-
ness, not untinctured with craft. She becomes the
prophetess, the mother of the faithful, holds disputations
with the devil, issues sealed pardons to her adorers,
and lies in of the Shiloh. Place Joanna Southcote at
Rome. She founds an order of barefooted Carmelites,
every one of whom is ready to suffer martyrdom for the
Church : a solemn service is consecrated to her memory ;
and her statue, placed over the holy water, strikes the
eye of every stranger who enters St. Peter's." 1

If that be the record of the Established Church in
England, it is little wonder that in Wales she was even
less successful. If it be a rhetorical exaggeration to
describe Wales as "a nation of Nonconformists," it
cannot be denied that the majority of religious people
belong to the Free Churches, 2 and that the literature,
education, and culture of Wales for the last two centuries
and a half have been dominated and even transformed
by the influence of the dissenting sects. 3 Yet there
never has been a religious movement in Wales which in
its origin was consciously Nonconformist. John Penry,

1 Macaulay : Essay on Ranke's History of the Popes.

- The Royal Commission reported in 1910 that the number of
Nonconformist communicants was 550,280, and of Church
communicants 193,081 (p. 20).

3 Ieuan Brydydd Hir, or Ieuan Fardd ac Offeiriad — as he
preferred to style himself — and who was by no means favourably
disposed to Dissenters or Methodists, thus wrote in 1776 : " Y
mae yn dra hynod for yr ychydig lyfrau Cymreig ag sydd yn
argraffedig, wedi cael eu trefnu a'u lluniaethu, gan mwyaf,
gan ymwahanyddion, ac nad oes ond ychydig nifer wedi eu
cyfansoddi gan ein hyffeiriaid ni es mwy na chan mlynedd ; a'r
rhei'ny, ysywaeth, yn waethaf o'r cwbl o ran iaith a defnydd."
The late Chancellor Silvan Evans commented upon this passage

NONCONFORMITY 267

the " poor young man, born and bred in the mountains
of Wales," who was " the first, since the last springing
up of the gospel in this latter age, that laboured to have
the blessed seed thereof sowed in those barren moun-
tains," and who, in 1593, sealed his testimony with his
blood, was at first anxious and ready to obtain a com-
mission from Parliament to preach the gospel " in his
dear country of Wales." x It was only after he had
been haled before the High Commission for this offence,
and Archbishop Whitgift had brutally denounced his
opinions as heretical, that Penry became a bitter oppo-
nent of the Episcopacy. After the publication of the
Martin Marprelate tracts (1588-1589), Penry fled to
Scotland. When he returned in 1592 he was an
avowed " Separatist." 2 Similarly, the founders of the
Independent sect in Wales had originally no quarrel

in 1876 as follows : " Pa fodd y dichon pethau fod yn wahanol,
tra y mae yr esgobion estronawl, y rhai sydd yn llywodraethu yr
Eglwys Gymreig, yn gorthryinu, ac yn erlid, ac yn llethu pob
gwr eglwysig a ryfygo wasanaethu ei genedl drwy gyfrwng y
wasg."

1 Penry's last letter to Lord Burleigh, cited in Rees's History
of Nonconformity in Wales, p. 28. Penry in his Supplication
(1586) anticipated the policy of the Long Parliament and appealed
to Parliament to employ lay preachers in Wales. His Petition
was presented to Parliament by Edward Downley, M.P. for
Carmarthen.

2 In his Exhortation (1588) he wrote, " Away with these
speeches. How can we be provided with preaching ? Our
livings are impropriated — possessed by non-residents ! Is there
no way to remove these dumb ministers but by supplication
to Her Majesty, and to plant better in their stead ? . . . You
never made account of your tithes as of your own. For shame !
Bestow something that is yours to have salvation made known
to you." This was a great advance on his original plan two years
before to get Parliament to subsidise preachers, and himself
to be a Parliamentary missioner in Wales, as Walter Cradock and
Vavasour Powell afterwards were during the Commonwealth.

268 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

with the articles, the liturgy, the government, or the
ceremonies of the Church of England. 1 The saintly
William Wroth had been Rector of Llanfaches for
thirty-nine years when in 1639, being deprived of his
living for irregular preaching, he founded the first
Nonconformist Church in Wales. He had no wish to
leave the fold of the Church. When remonstrated to by
Bishop Field of Llandaff about his uncanonical prac-
tices, he replied " there are thousands of immortal souls
around me thronging to perdition, and should I not
use all means likely to succeed to save them ? " It was
the reflection that " immortal souls were thronging to
perdition " that was the compelling force with him, as it
had been with John Penry, and as it was to be with
hundreds of devoted men in the years to come. He
had been in all ways, except in the matter of irregular
preaching, a faithful servant of the Church, and when
he came to die in 1642, he directed that he should be
buried, not in the meeting-house whose first minister
he was, but in the chancel of the church where he had

1 Cf. the Rev. Griffith Jones, himself the son of an Independent
deacon : "I must also do justice to the Dissenters in Wales,
and will appeal for the truth of it to all competent judges, and
to all those themselves who separate from us . . . that it was not
any scruple of conscience about the principles or orders of the
Established Church that gave occasion to scarce one in ten of
the Dissenters in this country to separate from us at first, what-
ever objections they may afterwards imbibe against conforming.
No, sir ; they generally dissent at first for no other reason than
for want of plain, practical, pressing, and zealous preaching; in
a language and dialect they are able to understand ; and freedom
of friendly access about their spiritual state. When they come
(some way or other) to be pricked in their hearts for their sins,
and find none . . . that will deal tenderly with their souls and
dress their wounds, they flee to other people for relief, as dis-
possessed demoniacs will no longer frequent the tombs of the
dead " (Welsh Piety for 1741, p. 12).

NONCONFORMITY 269

laboured for more than half his life. 1 The second Welsh
Independent, William Erbery, after acting as a curate
at Newport, was for ten years or so Vicar of St. Mary's,
Cardiff. He was proceeded against for irregularities
at the same time as Wroth in 1634, and he was also
deprived of his living in 1638. He formed an Inde-
pendent Church at Cardiff, somewhat reluctantly, out
of respect (he afterwards wrote) to the advice of Wroth.
When the Civil War broke out he fled to England, where
he became Chaplain to Major Skippon's regiment. He
fell away from the Independents, and adopted strange
mystical views akin to those of the newly-formed sect
of Quakers. But he retained to the last his reverence
for William Wroth. He recalled in 1652 with genuine
emotion the godly fellowship that gathered round that
venerable Apostle at Llanfaches. " What light and
labour in the spirit was there ! How heavenly-minded !
What holy language among them ! What watching !
What prayers night and day in the way they went, in
the work they did, at their plough ; everywhere in
private that spirit of prayer and pureness of heart ap-
peared. Nothing of ordinances was then mentioned." 2
Towards the end of his life, he became a real Noncon-
formist, in the sense that he disbelieved in the connection
of any Church with the State. Erbery's curate at
Cardiff in 1632 was Walter Cradock, who was described
by Laud in a letter to the king, on the authority of the

1 Walter Cradock was also buried in the chancel of the church
in his native parish, Llangwmucha.

2 Erbery's Apocripha, p. 8. After his death in 1654 his widow,
Dorcas Erbery, became a Quakeress. In The Shield Single,
written by an Independent preacher, Henry Nicholls, Erbery is
said to have come under the influence of Roger Williams of Rhode
Island.

270 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

Bishop of Llandaff, as " a bold ignorant young fellow."
His licence was taken away from him in 1633. He spent
the next six years preaching in various parts of Wales
and the border counties. For a year he acted as curate
at Wrexham, and Morgan Llwyd o Wynedd was one
of his converts. When driven out of his cure, he took
refuge in Shrewsbury, and found a powerful protector
in Sir Robert Harley, the grandfather of Lord Oxford,
Queen Anne's Tory Prime Minister, at Llanfair Water-
dine. He preached often in Radnorshire and Mont-
gomeryshire, and one of his earliest converts was
Vavasour Powell. In 1639 ne became Worth's assistant
at Llanfaches, but he had to fly to Bristol in 1643, taking
his flock with him, and on the fall of that city, he went
to London. Gradually he was driven to adopt more
advanced opinions. One of his bitterest critics reports
a sermon which Cradock preached in London, and which
shows that his views were not unlike those of Roger
Williams of Rhode Island. 1 " In that day," he said,
" there should be no ordinances to punish men for
holding opinions : there should be no confession of
faith ; there everyone should have the liberty of their
conscience . . . and in that day neither episcopacy nor
presbytery 2 nor any others should intermeddle or
invade the rights of the saints." 3 But up to the time
of his death in 1659 ne was m receipt of state pay. He

1 Roger Williams is often erroneously described as a Welshman,
who was born at Maestroiddyn Fawr, in the parish of Caio in
Carmarthenshire. The error arose through confounding him
with Rodericus Williams, who was educated at Jesus College,
Oxford. Roger Williams was educated at Cambridge, and
was a Cornishman.

2 Cf. Milton : " New Presbyter is but old priest writ large."

3 Edwards, Gangraena, part iii. p. 163 (a.d. 1646).

NONCONFORMITY 271

was a faithful supporter of Cromwell and parted company
with Erbery, Vavasour Powell, and Christopher Love. 1
Vavasour Powell was preparing for the Church ministry,
when he fell under the influence of Walter Cradock.
In or about 1654 ne joined the Baptists, and opposed
Cromwell's assumption of the title and office of Lord
Protector. But he, like Cradock, received State pay
till the Restoration, and in his autobiography, written
while lodged in the Fleet Prison, where he died in 1670,
he admits that he had been in constant receipt of tithes.
Nor was even Morgan Llwyd 2 averse to the connection
of State and Church. Perhaps in some ways the most
advanced of the Welsh Puritans was John Myles, the
founder in 1649 of the Baptist Church at Ilston near
Swansea, 3 and after the Restoration, of a Baptist Church
in a new Swansea, near Boston, in Massachusetts. But
throughout the Commonwealth he held the living of
Ilston.

1 Love (1618-1651) was born in Cardiff, and at the age of
fourteen was converted by Erbery. He received Presbyterian
ordination in Scotland, but came back to labour in London.
In 1 65 1 he was condemned for high treason and executed on
Tower Hill, Aug. 22nd. He confessed that he had been in
correspondence with Queen Henrietta Maria and had been
plotting for the return of the Stuarts.

2 J. H. Davies, in his masterly " Introduction " to the works
of Morgan Llwyd (pp. 49-50), inclines to the belief that Llwyd
gave up the incumbency of Wrexham some years before his death
in 1659. But there can be no doubt but that he was in his early
years in receipt of State pay. J. H. Davies (p. 44) has rescued
two stanzas by Huw Morus, not before published, in which Vava-
sour Powell and Morgan Llwyd are mentioned, evidently as the
most notable Puritans in North Wales.

3 Dr. Joshua Thomas in Hanes y Bedyddwyr supposes that a
Baptist cause at Olchon, on the borders of Herefordshire, was
started in 1633. Dr. Thomas Rees (History of Nonconformity,
p. 90) states that the Church founded in 1649 at Ilston was
the first Baptist Church in Wales. For his proofs, see passim.

272 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

I shall not attempt in this chapter to write the history
of the progress of Nonconformity in Wales. It is suffi-
cient for my purpose to show that the earliest religious
reformers of Wales originally had no object in view
except the saving of souls. If Laud, who wrought
for a reconciliation with the Roman Church, had ap-
preciated the wise policy of that historic institution,
if he had striven to retain the services of Wroth, and
Erbery, and Cradock, with the same zeal which he
displayed in driving them out, it is conceivable that the
robe of Christ might have remained seamless. After
the Civil War, it was perhaps too late, though it is at
least arguable that even in 1662 a policy of compre-
hension might still have succeeded. After the Act of
Uniformity, there was no hope of reconciliation. Bishop
Lloyd of St. Asaph (afterwards of Worcester and London)
did make a politic and genuine effort to induce Philip
Henry x and other dissenting ministers to conform,
and the Bishop of Llandaff offered episcopal ordination
to the illustrious Samuel Jones of Brynllywarch. 2 But
these and similar attempts came too late, and came to
nothing. Nonconformity grew in power, and strength,
and the gulf fixed between it and the Establishment
became wider with the revolving years.

In spite of the strenuous efforts and the evangelistic
zeal of the Puritan fathers, the people of Wales did not

1 Philip Henry, the father of Matthew Henry, the commentator,
was a native of Briton Ferry, Glamorganshire, but spent the
whole of his ministerial life in North Wales.

2 Samuel Jones was the most erudite of the Welsh Puritans.
As to the Bishop's offer, see Rees's Nonconformity, p. 232, seq.
He had been evicted from the living of Llangynwyd in Glamorgan-
shire in 1662. He founded an academy from which eventually
emanated the Presbyterian College of Carmarthen. That dissent
was caused bv Church Government, i.e. the refusal to allow

NONCONFORMITY 273

take kindly to the new faith. Huw Moms bewailed the
disappearance of the merry old days before the civil
dissensions. 1 In another poem he ridiculed the mockery
of a religious service held in the parish church by Round-
head soldiers. 2 Dr. Rees, who is not disposed to under-
estimate the success of the Welsh Puritans, found it
" impossible to form a correct idea of the number of
Nonconformists in Wales " at the end of the Common-
wealth. " The gathered churches," he states, " were

" irregular " preaching, and not by doctrinal differences is shown
by the verses by Stephen Hughes which prefaced his 1672 edition
of the Welshman's Candle.

Gwir Gonfformist oedd dy feistyr

Ac am hynny ni'th 'sgymunir

Ni throi'r arnat ti yn haerllug

Waeth dy daclu gan ffanatig.

Mae d'ail feistyr yntau'n dala
Holl athrawiaeth y Gymanfa
O Eglwys Loeger, gan ei thraethu
Ym mhob tyrfa y del iddi.

Mae e'n traethu ei hathrawiaeth
Er na leica mo'i disgyblaeth ;
Ond nid yw'n cyhoeddi hynny
Ble mae'n arfer o bregethu.

1 Pan oeddwn i'n fachgen, My youth it was a merry
Mi a welais fyd llawen, time,

Cyn codi o'r genfigen flin filen Ere came these broils so

yn fawr vain,

I ladd yr hen lywydd To kill the King and change
A dewis ffydd newydd the faith

Ac Arglwydd aflonydd yu And a restless Lord to reign,
flaenawr.

* Gwr gwych yn ei gleddau A red-coated soldier, with
A chwilia'r 'sgrythyrau sword at his side,

Ac a farna fel ystus rhwng Mounts the church pulpit the

beiau ar y bar. scriptures to read,

A hwn er na ddwedo He sits on the Bench when
Na phader na chredo offenders are tried,

A i'r pwlpud i focio'r hen And apes the old Vicar sans
Ficar. pater or creed.

W.M.W. S

274 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

above twenty in number, containing from two to five
hundred members each." x But the importance of the
Puritan movement in Wales must not be estimated by
the number of adherents. To the Puritans belongs the
credit of arresting the steady process of the degeneration
of the people. It was their work, as it will be shown in
the next chapter, that stayed the decay of the Welsh
language. It was owing to their pious zeal that the
poorer classes of Wales were taught to read the Scrip-
tures in their own tongue. They did not live to see the
fruits of their labour. But they were the first to sow
the good seed which " like the shakings of the olive
tree, was destined to new life after many days of
burial." 2

The Restoration brought with it the Uniformity Act
of 1662, which resulted in the eviction of 2000 ministers
from their benefices. It is said, 3 though the evidence
is somewhat defective, that over one hundred of them
were Welsh incumbents. The barbarous penal statutes
against Nonconformists — the Test Act, the Conventicle
Act, the Five Mile Act, the Corporation Act — bore
hardly on the tender plant of dissent in Wales. The
Toleration Act of 1689 revived the drooping cause, and
Dr. Thomas Rees claims that there was a perceptible
and even marked increase in the number of members
of the Dissenting Churches in Wales during the first
thirty-five years of the eighteenth century. 4 But the
energy of these Churches was dissipated by internal
factions and barren controversies, sometimes about

1 Hist, of Nonconformity, p. 119.

2 Stubbs, Const. Hist. vol. iii.

8 Rees, History of Nonconformity in Wales, p. 153.
• Ibid. pp. 274-280.

NONCONFORMITY 275

recondite points of theology, sometimes about the
efficacy of sacraments, sometimes about church govern-
ment, and again about such ordinances as infant bap-
tism. The old missionary zeal departed ; and after the
early Methodists had revived the consuming enthusiasm
of the ' hot-gospellers," the Dissenters were nick-
named the " senters sychion." 1 They no longer went
into the highways and bye-ways to compel sinners into
the way. They were content to hold their disputations
within doors. They were startled out of their spiritual
sloth by the portent known as the Methodist Revival.
Two young men, living in different counties, unknown to
and unconnected with one another, and with no well-
defined object in view other than to " labour in the
Lord's vineyard," — Howell Harries and Daniel Row-
lands — commenced a new mission in 1735. To Howell
Harries may be assigned the glory of being the founder
of Welsh Methodism. Born in Trevecca in 1714, he
was destined for the ministry of the Church. He spent
one term in Oxford, but found his work waiting for him
in his native county and never returned to the University.
He began to exhort and teach in his native parish.
His fame soon spread abroad, and zealous Dissenters
like Edmund Jones of Pontypool and David Williams
of Watford got into touch with him and invited him
to come and preach to their flocks. 2 Early in his apos-
tolic career he notes in his Diary that "by this time I
gained acquaintance with several Dissenters, who kindly

1 " The dry Dissenters." In South Wales to-day the Welsh
Independents are known, in common parlance, as " Dissenters,"
a term which is never applied to any of the other Nonconformist
denominations. At the first Methodist Association at Watford
in 1743 the Dissenters were charged with " luke-warmness."

- V. Rees's Nonconformity, c. v.

276 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

received me into their houses." In 1737 he happened
to hear Daniel Rowlands, curate of Llangeitho, preach
in Devynock Church, and his " heart burned with love
to God and to him. Here began my acquaintance with
him and to all eternity it shall not end." Powerful as
was the ministry of Howell Harries, Rowlands surpassed
him in the splendour of his preaching power. " Though
I have now been favoured with hearing and reading the
works of many of God's ministers," Harries records
in his Diary, " I do not know, so far as I am capable of
judging, that I have known any so favoured with gifts
and powers." The two young men, not yet thirty
years old, became fast friends and comrades in the
good work. Whitefield wrote to Harries in 1738, John
Wesley prayed for him, Griffith Jones encouraged and
stimulated his ardour. In 1743 the first meeting of the
Welsh Methodist Association was held at Watford, and
the second was held in May of the same year in Car-
marthenshire. At the latter they enlisted their most
illustrious recruit. William Williams of Pantycelyn,
near Llandovery, was the son of an Independent deacon.
He was sent to Vavasour Griffiths' academy at Llwyn-
llwyd to prepare for the medical profession. One
Sunday, which will ever be memorable in the history of
Wales, the young student heard Boanerges x thunder
out his flaming message in Talgarth Churchyard to an
unregenerate people. 2 He threw up the plans that had

1 Williams, in his elegy, thus described Harries's preaching.

Yn y daran 'roedd e'n aros,
Yn y cwmwl 'roedd ei le,

Ac yn saethu oddi yno allan
Fellt ofnadwy iawn eu rhyw.

2 Dr. Rees is wrong in saying (p. 353) that Harries preached

NONCONFORMITY 277

been made for his future. Henceforth he was resolved
to be a physician of souls. In 1740 he was ordained by
the Bishop of St. David's, and for three years he served
as curate to the Rev. Theophilus Evans at Llanwrtyd.
But there was little in common between the scholarly
author of The Mirror of the Early Ages x and the fiery
soul who had already consecrated himself utterly to
the service of God and man. He joined the Methodist
Association, and Harries, in a flash of inspiration, bade
him sing the songs of Zion. 2 They were also joined by
the Rev. Howell Davies, a young clergyman of Pembroke-
shire. Years after other clergymen of the Established
Church, such as Peter Williams (1746), David Jones,
Llangan (1768), Thomas Jones of Creaton ; and — the
greatest of them all — Thomas Charles of Bala (1785),
became associated with them. At the time of the
" secession " from the Established Church in 1811, there
were no less than twelve or thirteen ordained clergymen
among the members of the Association.

Once again the Church of England in Wales was given
an opportunity of reconciling herself with the people
to whom she was supposed to minister. Once again
the opportunity was lost. Howell Harries, though he
was refused episcopal ordination, and though he was

from his father's tombstone. Williams's testimony in his elegy
is conclusive.

Dyma'r fan tr'wy' byw mi gofiaf

Gwelais i di gynta' erioed

O flaen porth yr eglwys eang

Heb un twmpath dan dy droed.

1 Drych y Prif Oesoedd.

2 After all present at the Llanddeusant Association had tried
their hands at hymn-writing, Harries is stated to have said
" Williams bia'r canu."

278 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

guilty of uncanonical conduct in preaching in uncon-
secrated places without a licence from a bishop, lived
and died a faithful member of the Established Church.
As early as 1744 some of the Methodists were in favour of
seceding. One of the members of the Association has
left it on record that " the Methodists had once all of
them agreed to depart from the Church of England
excepting Mr. Howell Harries, who opposed their design
with all his might." x At the first meeting of the
Association at Watford in January, 1743, with White-
field in the chair, it was decided that the brethren should
continue to receive the sacrament in the Church. 2 On
April 17th, 1744, a resolution was passed by the Associa-
tion at Glan-yr-afon-ddu in Carmarthenshire to the effect
that " we agree to communicate in the parish Churches,
and to advise people to do so." 3 Daniel Rowlands,
in spite of his " irregular " practices, remained a minis-
ter of the Established Church to the end of his days,
though it is said that he had been inhibited from exercis-
ing his priestly functions by the Bishop of the Diocese.
Williams of Pantycelyn, a few weeks before his own
death, thus sets out the doctrinal position of his friend
and leader.

Mae ei holl ddaliadau gloew
Mewn tair credo gryno glir :
Athanasius a Nicea
Yng nghyda'r Apostolaidd wir :
Hen erthyglau Eglwys Loegr,
Catecis' Westminster fawr,
Ond yn benna'r Beibl santaidd
D' wynodd^arnynt oleu wawr.

1 Thomas Morgan's MS. cited in Rees's Nonconformity, p. 367.

2 Rees's Nonconformity, p. 363.

3 Ibid. p. 366.

NONCONFORMITY 279

It is evident from the poet's warmth of tone that he
was in thorough accord with Rowlands. Indeed,
Williams in all his manifold writings — and he was no
mean theologian — shows himself to be in doctrine an
orthodox evangelical Churchman. The clergymen in
the Association wielded great influence, and for years
they successfully resisted the movement of the lay
preachers towards secession. So meticulous were they
in their zeal for orthodoxy that in 1792 they expelled
the venerable Peter Williams from the Association,
because he had, in a note on the first chapter of the
Gospel of St. John, which had been published twenty
years before, and never repeated, used an expression
which was said to amount to Sabellianism. 1 The Rev.
David Jones of Llangan, who presided at the meeting of
the Association at Llangeitho in August, 1810, lost his
temper when one of the members proposed that some of
the preachers should be ordained and ordered him to be
turned out. A few days later David Jones died, and it
is more than likely that his death was hastened by
grief at the prospect of the secession of his brethren from
the Church which he loved and served so faithfully. 2
At last, however, in June 1811, the crisis came to a head.
The fateful step was taken at the meeting of the Associa-
tion which was held at Bala. Eight preachers, including
the famous names of John Elias and Thomas Jones of

1 The Rev. Peter Williams was then seventy years of age, and
had been a faithful and diligent worker in the Methodist cause
for forty-six years (Rees's Nonconformity, pp. 385-6). Sabellius
taught in the third century that there was but one person in the
Godhead, the other persons of the Trinity being but different
names of the same person. The heresy was condemned by a
Council at Rome in 260 a.d.

2 Rees's Nonconformity, p. 426.

28o THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

Denbigh, were ordained ministers by Thomas Charles
and two of the oldest preachers. Two months later,
at Llandilo, the Rev. John Williams of Pantycelyn, and
two or three others, ordained thirteen preachers, among
whom were included David Charles, Carmarthen,
Ebenezer Morris, and Ebenezer Richard. The breach
with the Church became complete. Six or seven of the
clerical members of the Association joined the secession ;
six refused to leave their old Church, Thomas Charles
himself was most reluctant to take the final step. 1 But
there was no help for it. If the Established Church had,
even at the eleventh hour, held out a helping hand in
Christian charity to her sorely-troubled sons, she could
have retained within her fold tens of thousands of the
most godly and devoted men that ever graced the
sanctuary of the Christian Church.

Dr. Thomas Rees states that the reason why this
momentous step was taken was because " many of the
societies (for lack of a sufficient number of ordained
ministers) were kept a whole year without having the
Lord's Supper administered to them. Under such
circumstances, they would occasionally go to the nearest
parish churches to receive the ordinance ; but their
feelings were often shocked at the idea that the ad-
ministrators were men of such character as would not

1 In 1 80 1 Charles drew up the " Rules and Objects " among the
people called the Methodists in Wales. It is there stated that
the Methodists " do not designedly dissent nor do we consider
ourselves Dissenters from the Church of England. So far as our
doctrinal views are concerned, we agree entirely with the Articles
of the Church of England. All that appears in our religious
customs as tending towards dissent, has taken place of necessity
not of choice. The formation of a schism, sect, or party is not
our object, God forbid ! but our own good and the good of our
fellow countrymen " (Hughes, Life of Thomas Charles, p. 64).

NONCONFORMITY 281

be tolerated as members of the connexion ; and not
infrequently they would meet there, at the Lord's Table,
parties whom they had been obliged to expel from their
fellowship only a few days before for open immorality." x
No doubt this was one of the considerations which
weighed with most, if not all, of the seceders. The
scruple of brethren, however, " to receive the sacrament
in the church, on account of the impiety of the adminis-
trators and the usual communicants there," had not
escaped the attention of the Association at its first
meeting at Watford in January, 1743. 2 But, as has been
said, it was determined that they should " continue to
receive it in the church, until the Lord open a clear way
to separate from her communion." The lay preachers
had for years before the final separation been pressing
hard for full ministerial powers, and the pressure did
not grow less as the fame of John Elias, Ebenezer Morris,
and Ebenezer Richard spread throughout the Princi-
pality. But the clerical element in the Association, led
at one time by Daniel Rowlands, then by David Jones of
Llangan, and lastly by Thomas Charles, had proved too
strong for the preachers. But in 181 1, after the death
of Jones of Llangan, Thomas Charles gave way. What
new fact, then, had arisen which cleared the way for
separation in 1811 ? The answer is to be found in
the Vindication which Thomas Charles published in
1802. In it he describes in clear and unmistakeable
terms the course to which the Methodists were being
relentlessly driven. They looked upon themselves as
members of the Church of England. They repudiated
the name of " dissenter." When they met to hear the
sermons of the " exhorters " or " counsellors," to engage
1 Rees's Nonconformity, pp. 425-6. 2 Ibid. p. 363.

282 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

in public prayer, and to fortify their faith by the exchange
of religious experiences, they did so, not in a " meeting-
house " or " conventicle," but in a " chapel," which,
though unconsecrated by a bishop, was to their mind
only an annexe or mission house of the parish church.
They only partook of the sacrament in church or from
the hands of duly ordained clergymen. They were chris-
tened and married in church, and they were buried in
the churchyard by the parson of the parish. They
held the doctrines of the Church of England. They
believed in the three creeds, of Nicea, of Athanasius,
and of the Apostles. They were unsound on none of
the thirty-nine Articles. In order to come within the
protection of the Toleration Act, dissenters had to
register their meeting-houses, and their preachers had to
take out a licence. But the Methodist fathers refused
to confess that they were dissenters by taking out a
licence for themselves or register their chapels. Some
time before 1802 some ingenious persecutors of the
Methodistical churchmen, more foolish than even the
bishops, devised and carried out a scheme which they
fondly believed would stamp out the pestilent pre-
cisians. They instituted prosecutions against Methodist
preachers because they exhorted the societies without a
licence and in unregistered meeting-houses. Some of
the preachers were imprisoned. Thomas Charles men-
tions the case of one of them who had been imprisoned
for six months in Dolgelley gaol. In one year nearly
£100 had been paid in fines. 1 It was this that made
the situation intolerable. A cruel choice lay before

1 " Our steady attachment to the Established Church," wrote
Thomas Charles, " cost us in fines, in one year, near one hundred
pounds : for we scrupled to have our places of worship recorded
and our preachers licensed as dissenters." Hugh Hughes, in his

NONCONFORMITY 283

the much-tried brethren. Either they must forgo the
delights of spiritual companionship, the communion of
saints, the uplifting power of extempore prayer, the
emotional fervour of passionate preaching, and the
unspeakable joy of devotional and inspiring confidences
of soul with soul, or they must write themselves down
as dissenters. They hesitated much and long. But by
1802 the choice had been made, and the Welsh Method-
ists, in self-defence, had been compelled to register
their chapels as dissenting meeting-houses and to take
out licences for their preachers as dissenting ministers
under the Toleration Act. The "Secession" of 181 1
was in truth little more than a formal recognition of an
already existing state of things. Tha Thomas Charles
foresaw clearly in 1802 that the Methodists would be
driven to ordain ministers of their own is shown clearly
by his statement x " that though to episcopal ordination
we give the decided preference, and think it very desir-
able, could it be obtained : but how, we would ask, in
the present state of things, is it to be obtained by any
of our preachers, though ever so well qualified in learning
and abilities ? ' Even after the final step was taken,
however, it required all the unique and unrivalled
authority of Thomas Charles to force the societies in
many places to acquiesce in the decision to secede from
the Established Church. 2 In very truth, the Welsh
Calvinistic Methodist connexion was formed in 181 1,

translation of Charles's Vindication (1894), gives the name
of the imprisoned preacher as Lewis Evan of Llanengan in
Montgomeryshire .

X P. 51.

2 See, e.g., the refractory conduct of the Llangeitho Methodists
after the secession, in Rees's Nonconformity in Wales, pp. 427-8.
See also Hughes, Life of Thomas Charles, chap. v.

284 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

not because Thomas Charles and his fellows wanted to
create a new " schism," but because the rulers of the
Church stood idly by while lewd men of the baser sort
of set policy forced them out of the fold.

The story of the rise and progress of Nonconformity
in Wales is a veritable romance, which has no parallel
in any other country. In Scotland Presbyterianism
became in early days the established religion ; in Ire-
land the Catholic Church had behind it the authority,
guidance, and world-wide organisation of Rome ; in the
United States of America and the Colonies there has
not been for generations an Established Church. The
fathers of Welsh Nonconformity were for the most part
uneducated and unlettered peasants who had to con-
tend, unaided by State or patrons, with the difficulties
of their work. Some of their most splendid names
belong to men who would have been ridiculed by Huw
Moras. John Elias was a weaver ; Christmas Evans a
farm servant ; Williams o'r Wern a carpenter. 1 Wales
was a poor and sparsely-populated country. Bad roads
and inhospitable mountains made travelling difficult.
On the other hand, the Established Church contained
all the rich men, the scholars, the wealthy merchants,
the officials, and the professional men. Every parish
had its church, the fabric of which was maintained by
a compulsory Church rate, and its clergyman, who was
in receipt of tithe. To all outward seeming all was in
favour of the Establishment and against Nonconformity.
As Thomas Charles stated in his Vindication in 1802,

1 Rhai a ddywed yn dduwiol, mai'r Gof sydd ysbrydol,
Ac eraill, modd gwrol, a ganmol y Gwydd ;
A rhai syn deisyfu y Crydd i'w ceryddu,
A'r lleill yn molianu'r Melinydd.

Huw Morus.

NONCONFORMITY 285

" The Church people have every advantage over us, in
education, in wealth, in numbers, in favour with the
great ones of the earth, and in all outward things."
The poor, insignificant sectarians had to compete
against wealth and culture, education and officialdom.
They had to plan, create, develop, and maintain a
national religious organisation. It was too great a task
to be accomplished in one generation, or through the
instrumentality of one man or of one school of prophets.
It is true that Wales has been blessed with a host of
heroic men, and that not a single generation, from the
days of William Wroth down to our own times, has been
without its strenuous workers for the good cause. But
the unresting energy of Walter Cradock or Stephen
Hughes, the flaming eloquence of Daniel Rowlands, the
matchless poetry of Pantycelyn, the magnetic genius of
Christmas Evans, the inspired philosophy of Williams
o'r Wern, and the supreme organising capacity of
Thomas Charles are not sufficient to account for the
constant and progressive success of Nonconformity in
Wales. 1 The chief cause which contributed to this
success was the fact that Nonconformity taught the
Welsh people to work out their own salvation. It was
easy work to kindle the sacred fire on God's altar during
the mighty commotion and spiritual exaltation of a
Revival. But this was not enough. The fire had to be
kept burning on the altar in the years of coldness and

1 Dr. Thomas Rees estimated the number of communicants in
Protestant Nonconformist Churches in Wales at 283,500 in 1861,
and 368,700 in 1882. The Royal Commission in its Report in
1910 found that in 1905 the number of Nonconformist communi-
cants in Wales was 550,280, and of Church communicants
193,081 (p. 20). It also stated that the accommodation provided
by the Nonconformist Churches was for 74 per cent, and by the
Church for 22 per cent, of the total population of Wales (pp. 56-7).

286 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

spiritual destitution ; the hungry sheep had to be fed
in the days of famine. In every parish a number of
people had to combine together to build a chapel, to
choose a pastor, to elect officers, to arrange finance, to
act as a court of discipline— in a word, to perform all
the duties of self-government. The wonder is that, in
a country as backward as Wales was until our own age,
such men were found in every parish from generation
to generation. These simple folk had one single purpose
before their eyes in all the sacrifices that they made and
in all the work that they did. Their only object was
to save souls. But they built wiser than they knew.
The life of Wales has been transformed and transfigured
by Dissent. The preservation of the Welsh language,
the revival of her literature, the awakening of her
spirituality, the development of her education, even the
cultivation of her choral singing — perhaps the most
striking and distinctive feature of her social life — can
be traced to the fertilising energy of Nonconformity.
Wales has worked out her salvation in her own way.
She has fashioned her Free Churches after her own
model. She has composed her own hymns and sung
them to her own airs. She has adopted her own form
of worship and largely her own system of organisation.
She has discovered and developed her own peculiar
and distinctive style of pulpit oratory. Nonconformity
found Wales derelict ; it has reared up a new nation. It
found Wales pagan ; it has made her one of the most
religious countries in the world. It found Wales ignor-
ant ; it has so stimulated her energies that by to-day
Welshmen, largely by their own self-sacrifice, have
provided for themselves the most complete educational
system in Europe. It found Wales a nation of no

NONCONFORMITY 287

account ; it has trained and disciplined her character
so that to-day she is recognised as one of the component
nations of the United Kingdom, and one of her sons —
a characteristic product of Welsh Nonconformity, un-
aided by the culture of the schools — is the first man
in the Empire, and one of the arresting figures of the
world. Even the Church, which cast out the founders
of Nonconformity, has cause to bless the existence of
its competitor. As the Church of Rome gained in
spiritual force, in discipline, and in authority through
the Protestant Reformation, so the Church of England
in Wales has been purged of her old abuses — her sloth,
her indifference, her Erastianism — by the success of
Dissent. From the days of Griffith Jones, Llanddowror,
and Williams of Pantycelyn she has drawn largely from
Nonconformity. To-day one of the Welsh bishops is
the grandson of a Methodist deacon. Another remained,
until he arrived at years of discretion, a member of the
Methodist connexion : and in her old age, his mother
went every Sunday from the episcopal palace to the
village chapel at the gate — an example of true Christian
charity which we may hope augurs well for the tolerance
of a new age. The Church of Bishop Morgan and
Archdeacon Prys, of Vicar Pritchard and Huw Morus,
of Griffith Jones and Daniel Rowlands, of Lewis Morris,
Goronwy Owen, and Ieuan Brydydd Hir, of Alun,
Glasynys, and Ieuan Glan Geirionydd, of Gwallter
Mechain and Carnhuanawc, and of that noblest and
most far-seeing of patriots, Dr. Rowland Williams,
cannot fail, in spite of past errors, to excite the regard
and even affection of Welshmen. The shortsighted
prejudices of men in high places and the practice of
promoting aliens to the thrones of Dewi and Teilo, of

288 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

Deiniol and Cyndeyrn, caused the Church to fail in her
duty in the past. Now that she has recovered her
liberty and her leaders will represent her own soul and
spirit and not the whim or caprice of an English Prime
Minister, she may yet become — if she be wisely guided
and if her members be inspired to throw themselves
heartily and without reserve into all the activities of
national life — in truth and in fact, the Church of
Wales.

CHAPTER VII

THE WELSH LANGUAGE

How the ancient speech of the Britons, after battling
for eighteen centuries against three such powerful lan-
guages as Latin, French, and English, has survived at
all is a mystery ; the fact that to-day it is more studied,
more written, and more read than ever it was before,
is a miracle. For nearly four centuries after the
" Claudian " conquest of South Britain, Latin was the
official language. The masterful race, which succeeded
in imposing its speech for all time on the provinces of
Gaul and Spain, pursued its policy of conquest, penetra-
tion, and assimilation with equal energy in Britain. It
intersected the country with its great roads, and Sarn
Helen in Wales is as well marked as Watling Street in
England. 1 There was no portion of Wales that did not
fall within the sphere of its civilising influence. Car-
marthen and Carnarvon were its outposts ; its castella
were scattered all over the country ; the great camps of
Chester (Deva) and Caerleon (Isca) were its bases. 2 The
Roman steps over the bleak mountains of Merioneth, 3

1 See Prof. Lloyd's History of Wales, c. iii.

2 In addition to J. E. Lloyd's valuable chapter iii. see Prof.
Haverfield's paper in the Cymmrodorion Transactions, 1908-9.

3 Some doubt has been recently cast on the Roman origin of
the steps. But there are other evidences {e.g. Caergai) to show
that the Romans effectively occupied the wildest parts of Wales.

w.m.w. 289 T

2qo THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

and the gold mines (Gogofau) of Caio in a wild part of
Carmarthenshire, remain as monuments of the thorough-
ness of the Roman occupation. From Rome the
Christian faith was brought to Britain and to Wales.
The language of the new religion x was necessarily Latin.
To this day the speech of the people of Wales betrays
the extent of Roman influence over the life of this
remote province. The chief occupation of the Britons
was agriculture. Many of the agricultural terms used
in Welsh are derived from Latin. 2 Some of the com-
monest domestic terms have the same origin. 3 Natur-
ally, Latin supplied the names of military weapons. 4
The divisions of the year into months and days were
adopted from the Romans ; the Winter and May
Kalends (calon-gaeaf and calan-mai) still survive in the
ordinary speech of the people ; and for nearly all the
months of the year, and for all the days of the week,
the Latin nomenclature was, and is still, used. It is
from Latin MSS. that we derive our earliest knowledge
of Celtic Britain, and " the oldest examples of written
Welsh are found between the lines and in the margins
of Latin MSS." 5 We may well conclude from these

1 The Welsh word for Church, " Eglwys," is derived from
ecclesia, a Greek word borrowed by the Romans. The English
" Church " and Scotch " Kirk " are derived from Kvpiaic6i>, " the
Lord's House," the term used in the Greek Church, whence it was
transmitted to Germany and eventually to Britain.

2 E.g. " cwlltwr " for ploughshare ; " ffos " for ditch ; " mur "
for wall ; " pont " for bridge. See Lloyd's Hist, of Wales, vol. i.
pp. 84-7. " Aradr " (plough), " ceffyl " (horse), " tarw " (bull)
are, Sir J. Morris Jones informs me, derived from a common root,
but not direct from Latin.

3 E.g. " ffwrn " for oven, " ffenestr " for window, " sebon " for
soap, " cyllell " for knife.

4 E.g. " castell " for fort, " pabell " for tent.

5 Morris Jones, " Taliesin," vol. xxviii. of the Cymmrodor (p. 6).

THE WELSH LANGUAGE 291

facts that as Latin was the language of government, of
the army, of religion, of scholarship, of industry, and
largely of the home, the ancient British tongue was in
process of being absorbed or eliminated. 1 But in the
early years of the fifth century the Emperor Honorius
recalled his legions from Britain, and gradually the native
tongue reasserted itself.

The story of the next six hundred years is one of
continual fighting against Saxon and Angle, Jute and
Dane. Time and again Welsh princes had to do homage
to the foreign overlord. Shortly before his death Harold,
the last of the Saxons, harried and devastated Wales
from end to end. But the struggle against the savage
invaders only served to intensify the love of the Britons
for their faith, their land, and their language. In the
fifth century the coming of Cunedda from North Britain
brought not only a material accession of strength to the
Brythonic inhabitants of Wales, 2 but by bringing about
a closer intercourse with the Britons of the north, made

The whole essay is an absorbingly interesting account of the
early literature of Wales, with special reference to the Book
of Taliesin. It affords convincing proof of the unbroken con-
tinuity of Welsh literature from the sixth century downwards.

1 " Welsh contains a very large number of Latin loan-words "
(Lloyd, Hist, of Wales, p. 84) . " The Celts had no native alphabet
or system of writing " (ib. p. 86). Cf. Moras Kyffin's " Anerch "
in Diffyniad Ffydd (ed. W. P. Williams, pp. vii, viii.), " ag am y
geiriau Lladinaidd, pwy nis gwyr nad yw'r iaith Gymraec yn ei
herwydd ddim amgen onid hanner lladin drwyddi. Mi allwn
pe bae gennyf hamdden wneuthyr llyfr digon ei faint o'r geiriau
Cymraec arfaredig a fenthyciwyd ..." For a full treatment of
this matter, see Professor Loth's Les mots Latins dans les langues
Britanniques.

2 For the obscure story of Cunedda Wledig's " conquest " of
Wales in the fifth century, see Lloyd's History of Wales, pp. 118-
121 ; Rhys' Celtic Britain, pp. 118- 121 ; Rhys and Jones's
Welsh People, pp. 9-10.

292 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

the poems of Taliesin, Myrddin, Talhaiarn, and Llywarch
Hen, the great bards of the sixth century, known to
them, and must have acted as a mighty stimulus to the
native literature. 1 The Cymry, as they now came to
call themselves, kept aloof from the pagan Saxons and
refused even to attempt to convert them to Christianity.
As the Cymry were driven further and further into
the corners and extremities of the island, they retained
their language uncontaminated with Saxon. In the
Laws of Howell Dda, which were promulgated about
the middle of the tenth century in Latin and Welsh,
there are few evidences of Anglo-Saxon influences on
the life or language of the Cymry. 2 With the coming
of the Normans, however, for the first time since the
Roman occupation, a foreign language, and that the
most powerful spoken in Europe at that time, began to
penetrate into Wales. For three centuries it became
the language of the Court of England, for three centuries
and a half the language of Charters, and Assizes, and
Acts of Parliament, and for over six centuries, at first
wholly, and afterwards in part, the language of " plead-
ing " and of the law courts. The Norman lords-marcher
erected 143 castles in Wales. They spoke their own
language, and they administered in it their own laws. 3
But while the speech of this dominant and aggressive
people, who carried the fame of their prowess from
Scandinavia through Europe to the islands of the Medi-

1 See Morris Jones's " Taliesin," 28th vol. of the Cymmrodor,
especially pp. 202-232.

2 Nor did the Welsh laws show much trace of Roman influence.
The only Welsh law term derived from Latin which I can recall
is " tyst " (witness).

3 The King's assent to the passing of a statute is given even
to-day in Norman French.

THE WELSH LANGUAGE 293

terranean, has disappeared from this kingdom almost
entirely, the Welsh vernacular has survived, and shows
few traces that it existed for so long side by side with
the language of the Norman lords and the troubadours
of France. 1 After three centuries, the language of the
Norman conqueror and the Saxon subject became amal-
gamated. The new speech was ennobled in its early
days by the genius of Chaucer. From that time onwards
English proceeded from strength to strength. The great
Elizabethans made it the repository of the finest litera-
ture of the modern world. Milton and Dryden, Addison
and Swift and Steele, Pope and Gray, and countless
others added to the vast store of its literary wealth.
The French Revolution found its interpreters in English
in the mighty voices of Wordsworth and Shelley and
Byron. The Victorian Age gave fresh lustre to its
resplendent worth. Bacon and Hobbes, Locke and
Hume, Bentham and Mill made it the language of
philosophy. From Newton to Darwin a host of great
discoverers made it the language of science and of
invention. Gibbon, prince of historians, forsaking the
vanity that prompted him to write in French, produced
in it his masterpiece, which opened a new era in the
study and writing of history. The prose of the great
Victorians, of Newman and Ruskin, of Landor and
Froude has never been surpassed. The genius of Field-
ing and Sterne, of Scott and Jane Austen, of Dickens,

1 E.g. the Welsh for " drake "is " meilart," and in South Wales,
where the Norman influence was strongest, the word " cwtsh "
(for "lie down" ), " cer i gwtsh " — " go to bed," is probably
derived from the French coucher. Probably the South Wales
word for "shoe-horn," " siespin," is derived from the French
" chausse-pied." But the number of words of French origin
are surprisingly few.

294 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

Thackeray, and George Eliot has written their immortal

names on " the Western world's illuminated scroll."

Englishmen have carried their language to the utmost

ends of the earth. The great young Republic of the

West, the rising power of the world, has adopted it as

its common speech. The 300 million natives of India

commonly speak a hundred different dialects, but English

has become the lingua franca used by them even in the

Indian National Congress. Of all languages known to

mankind, it is the most aggressive. It has penetrated

not only into every part of the earth, but into every

domain of human activity. Bacon sent his Advancement

of Learning to Prince Charles in Latin, because he feared

English books could not be " citizens of the world."

But English has by this time " conquered regions Caesar

never knew." Its flag flies over all the seven seas. It

sweeps over them

An argosy with portly sail,
Like signiors and rich burghers on the flood
Do overpeer the petty traffickers.

The Latin poet proudly boasted, " nihil humanum a me
alienum ftuto." That motto might truthfully be inscribed
over the portals of every fairly representative English
library. 1 For five centuries and more, Welsh has lived
as the close neighbour of this powerful, all-pervading
language. It has been divided from it by no range of
Cheviot Hills, still less by a St. George's Channel. For
centuries English has crossed Offa's Dyke, and even in
the poems of Dafydd ap Gwilym {fl. 1350) there are to

1 So much, perhaps, may be allowed a Welshman, who has
not a drop of English blood in his veins, and who learned English
as a foreign language, to say of English literature without pro-
voking Lord Morley's " good-natured international smile "
[Politics and History, p. 60).

THE WELSH LANGUAGE 295

be found many words taken from English. 1 Yet to-day
Welsh not only survives as a spoken tongue ; its litera-
ture is more versatile, and its students and readers more
numerous, than ever before. I can only repeat, it is a
miracle.

This is all the more wonderful when we remember
the political history of the two nations. Wales was
subdued by Edward I. in 1282 ; but in the next century
Dafydd ap Gwilym sang a new song — new in its themes,
new in its treatment, new in its metre, new in its careless
and joyous spirit. When the Wars of the Roses stifled
the muse of England, Llawdden and Iorwerth Fynglwyd,
Dafydd ap Edmwnd, Lewys Glyn Cothi, and Tudur
Aled kept alive and maintained at a high level the
traditions of Welsh poetry. When a Welshman was
crowned King of England on Bosworth Field, it looked
as if the triumph of Wales over its secular foes had been
consummated. We have seen how, in the reign of
Henry VIII., such changes were made in the relations
of the two countries that vast material advantages
inured to the benefit of the smaller and poorer country.
But those changes were fraught with peril to the lan-
guage of Wales. The Act of 1535 aimed a deadly blow
at it. The preamble explained that it was " nothing
like nor consonant to the natural mother tongue used
within this realm," and the language which was spoken
in Britain before the Saxons had left their German
swamps was thus officially displaced by a hybrid speech
not two hundred years old. 2 The sovereign's policy was

1 E.g. " Siopiau Sieb " (the shops of Cheapside), " lawnt "
(lawn), " lifrai " (livery), " abit " (habit).

2 We are too often apt to measure the difference between the
literary repute of English in Henry VIII. 's time and that of

296 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

directed to the " extirpation " of Welsh. Any official
who was guilty of the offence of using it was to forfeit
his office or fees, and that section of the Act has never
been repealed. Hitherto, the gentry of Wales habitually
spoke Welsh, and they had been munificent patrons of
the bards. In the monasteries learned scribes piously
copied the treasures of the mediaeval literature of Wales,
and abbots and priors dispensed bounteous hospitality
to the " cler," x the itinerant poets. But all the price-
less MSS. were scattered at the Dissolution of the Monas-
teries in 1536, and the fragments which have survived
only serve to heighten our regret at the senseless van-
dalism which destroyed for ever so many evidences of
ancient Cymric culture. The Welsh gentry, when they
became officials of the English Government, speedily
conformed to the conditions laid down in the Act of
Union. They made haste, not only to acquire a know-
ledge of English, but to forget and ignore the verna-
cular. The Salesburys of Lleweny and Plas Isaf, like
the Herberts, kept up their acquaintance with Welsh.
William Llyn in his elegy on Sir John Salesbury, one
of the Justices of the Court of Great Sessions, said of
him :

Y Sessiwn gwyddys eisiau The Sessions will miss ere long
Eich doeth fron, a'ch dwy- Your knowledge good of either
iaith frau ! tongue.

Welsh with their relative positions to-day. No impartial critic
would draw a comparison unfavourable to Wales between the
richness of Welsh literature and the tenuity of English in 1535.
" Canys yn fy marn i," wrote Dr. Sion Dafydd Rhys in 1592, who
was versed in French, Italian, and Latin, as well as in English
and Welsh, " ydh ym ni y Cymry yn gystal yn goreuder a' rhai
goreu (o un genedl) o'r sydh yn y byd, hyd tra bhom ni yn dha
eyn cynedhfau."

1 Dr. Lewis Edwards's Essays, p. 81.

THE WELSH LANGUAGE 297

The greatest of the Salesburys was the translator,
William Salesbury, who did more for Welsh and Welsh-
men than any man of his age. But he complacently
looked forward to the time when only one speech would
be used in the whole realm. In the Preface to his
Dictionary (1647), which was dedicated to Henry VIII.,
he echoes the words of the preamble of the Act of Union.
" What great debate and strife," he said, " hath arisen
amongst men by reason of diversity of language. . . .
Wherefore seeing there is many of your Grace's subjects
in Wales that readeth the Welsh tongue," and in order
to enable them to learn English, he was led to publish
his Dictionary. The aim of both, the king and Sales-
bury, was the same ; they only differed in their method
of attaining their object. King Henry thought that he
could destroy the language " with the spirit of his
mouth," and by the force of law. Salesbury believed
that the surest way to bring about its destruction was
by using it as a means to learn a new language to its
subjects. 1

The effect of the enactment of 1535 soon became
apparent. The " respectable classes," seeing that Eng-
lish had become the language of officials and officialdom,
began to despise and scorn the language of their youth.
Dr. Griffith Roberts of Milan, who retained his ardent
love for Wales and Welsh during the forty years of his
exile in the land of Midian, ridiculed, in his preface to

1 Mr. W. Edwards, then Inspector of Schools for the Merthyr
district, in a paper which he read in 1887 before the Cymmrodorion
Society, gave vent to a similar opinion. " I feel certain," he
said, " that the life of Welsh will not be appreciably prolonged
by its recognition in schools. . . . When every Welshman
knows English as well as he knows Welsh, and there is no nucleus
of monoglots to act as a preservative, the weaker language will
then rapidly die."

298 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

his Grammar in 1567, the advent of the Anglicised Welsh-
man, whom Jack Glan-y-gors two centuries afterwards
satirised under the nickname of " Die Sion Dafydd."
" For you will find some," he said, " that no sooner see
the river Severn, or the clock-towers of Shrewsbury, and
hear the Saxon say in his tongue ' good morrow,' begin
to forget their Welsh and speak it with a foreign accent ;
their Welsh is Englishfied, and their English, God knows,
is too Welshy." * Some years later (1592) Dr. Sion
Dafydd Rhys, another " Italianate " Welshman, who
had taken his degree in medicine at Sienna, and who
had settled down to the practice of his profession in
Brecon, published his Welsh Grammar — the first pub-
lished in this country. 2 In the preface he scornfully
refers to the Anglicised Welshmen. " But the filthy
lees of Welshmen, if it be fair to tell the truth, are only
the dregs and corruption and dross and scum of the
people, and, as it were, the refuse of the country. And
in the same sort and throne ought to be placed those
who wish to destroy the language of the Cymry and put
the language of the Saxon in its stead." 3 Three years
later (1595), in the preface to his translation of Bishop
Jewel's Defence of the Church of England, Morus Kyffin

1 " Canys chwi a gewch rai yn gytrym ag y gwelant afon
Hafren neu glochdai'r Amwythig a chlywed Sais yn dywedid yn
ei iaith ' good-morrow ' a ddechreuant ollwng eu Cymraeg dros
gof, a'i ddywedid yn fawr eu llediaeth. Eu Cymraeg sydd
Seisnigaidd, a'u Saesoneg, Duw a wyr, yn rhy Gymreigaidd."

2 Griffith Roberts's Dosbarth Byrr (1567) was the first Welsh
Grammar printed, but it was published in Milan.

3 " Eithr nid yw y fursenaidd sorod o Gymru, os teg dywedyd
y gwir, onid gohilion a llwgr a chrachyddion y bobl a'i brynteion :
a megis cachaduriaid y wlad. Ac yn yr un orseddfa a chadair
y dylid lleihau a gosod y rhai a fynant ddodi a difa iaeth y Cymru
a dodi iaeth y saeson yn ei lie hi."

THE WELSH LANGUAGE 299

refers indignantly to some " clerical person in an Eis-
teddfod ... He said that it was not right to allow
any Welsh books to be printed, but he wanted all the
people to learn English, and lose their Welsh, saying
further that the Welsh Bible would do no good but a
great deal of harm. . . . Could the devil himself say
otherwise ? Let all say Amen, and no more mention
ever be made of him." x The " clerical person " was not
alone in this view, nor was this opinion peculiar to his
age. Dr. Johnson, who was too good a " Conservative "
and too cultured a man to view with indifference the
extinction of the Celtic languages of Britain, 2 wrote in
his Tour in the Hebrides with ironical scorn of people of
the same tribe as Kyffin's cleric. " Their language (i.e.
Gaelic)," he said, " is attacked on every side. Schools
are erected in which English alone is taught, and there
were lately some who thought it reasonable to refuse
them a version of the Holy Scriptures that they might
have no monument of their native tongue." Stephen
Hughes, in a preface to an edition of The Welshman's
Candle (1672), refers to a similar objection urged by the
opponents of Welsh. " And so (they urge) that it is no

1 " Rhyw wr eglwysig mewn Eisteddfod . . . Yntau a
ddoedodd nad cymwys oedd adel printio math yn y byd ar
lyfrau cymreig, eithr efe a fynnai i'r bobl ddyscu saesonaeg a
cholli eu cymraeg, A allai ddiawl ei hun ddoedyd yn amgenach ?
Doeted pawb Amen, ac na chlywer byth mwy son am dano "
(W. P. Williams's edition, 1908, p. xiv. of the author's
Anerch).

a See Dr. Johnson's Diary of a Journey into North Wales in the
year 1774, ed. R. Duppa, pp. 80-81. " After dinner, the talk
was of preserving the Welsh language. I offered them a scheme.
... I recommended the republication of David ap Rhees's Welsh
Grammar." Would that the " scheme " had been elaborated,
but Johnson never expanded his notes of the Tour through North
Wales into a book.

300 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

good printing any sort of Welsh books," he said, " to
keep up the language, but that it was right for the
people to lose their language and learn English. But it
is easier to say ' mountain ' than to cross it. True it is
that it would be a very good thing if everybody in
Wales knew English." x The same objection was con-
stantly raised against Griffith Jones's circulating schools,
where the people were taught to read the Welsh Bible. 2
But the reply also was always the same. " Who does
not know," said Kyffm, " how impossible it would be
to bring all the people into a knowledge of English and
to forget their Welsh, and how unreasonable in the
meantime it would be to lose an innumerable amount of
men's souls." Stephen Hughes, in the preface already
referred to, makes some shrewd comments on the folly

1 " Ar hynny yn barnu nad da printio math yn y byd o lyfrau
Cymraeg i gynnal yr iaith i fyny, ond ei fod yn weddus i'r bobl
golli eu iaith, a dysgu saesneg. Haws dywedyd mynydd na
mynned drosto. Gwir yw mai da iawn fyddai pe tae pawb yng
Hymru yn deall saesneg."

2 Thomas Charles, writing about 1811, said, "More than
150 years ago in Wales, the whole country was in a deplorable
state with regard to the acquisition of religious knowledge.
For a long time previous, fashionable people had been trying to
stamp out the language of the country, and to have the children
taught altogether in English. Against these people, and against
this state of universal ignorance, the Rev. Griffith Jones of
Llandowror was raised up. . . . Sure I am, the Welsh charity
schools do no way hinder to learn English, but do very much
contribute towards it ; and perhaps you will allow, sir, that
learning our language first is the most expeditious way to come
to the knowledge of another. . . . Experience now proves
beyond dispute that if it be ever attempted to bring all the
Welsh people to understand English, we cannot better pave the
way for it than by teaching them to read their own language
first." This counsel of common-sense and experience was,
however, rejected by " educationalists " till the closing years
of the last century, and even now its truth is only partially
recognised by many education authorities in Wales.

THE WELSH LANGUAGE 301

of the Anglicisers from the common-sense and practical
point of view. " And if for many generations there were
1300 educated and conscientious Englishmen keeping
school at the same time in the thirteen counties of
Wales to teach English to our fellow countrymen,
nevertheless it would not be possible for the common
people of our country to lose their mother's tongue
during the following five hundred years if the world will
last as long. Because only a few of our commonalty
can afford to keep their children in school. And those
who can be kept there, after learning English in the
school, must speak Welsh at home, else they will not be
understood, and when they grow up to be heads of
families themselves, it is known that they will have to
speak Welsh among their family, and generally in the
fairs and markets — and how then will the Welsh lan-
guage be lost ? . . . Though very many in our country
(thanks be to God) can make use of the English Bible,
yet things are different with a third part of all Welsh-
men, 1 and there is no possibility in many generations,
nor for all of them, nor to the greater number of them,
to learn so much English as to enable them to under-
stand the Bible in that language, unless God performs
miracles."

It was only natural that the spoken Welsh should
have deteriorated during the generations succeeding the
Reformation. The monasteries, the free schools of the
poor, had disappeared, and their place was inadequately
filled by the few new Grammar Schools founded by

1 The 1 89 1 Census showed that there were still over half a
million monoglot Welshmen in Wales. The proportion of
monoglots had not, therefore, decreased in the two centuries
succeeding Stephen Hughes. Now, however, the proportion is
much smaller.

302 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

Edward VI. and Elizabeth. 1 Though these schools
were designed for the education of poor children, the
language of the schools was English. 2 The inevitable
result occurred. In a short time the schools were only
used for the education of the children of the middle and
upper classes. Moras Kyffin's translation of Jewel's
Apologia has long been recognised as a Welsh classic. 3
But he himself in his " Address " to the reader states that
he had abandoned all the old obsolete words, and had
chosen the easiest and most vulgar words, so as to make
his book intelligible to those who only knew the spoken
Welsh. 4 Though the words employed may have been

1 At Brecon, Abergavenny, Bangor, Cowbridge, Presteign,
Carmarthen and Ruthin (Edwards, Wales, p. 349). Sir Owen
Edwards is, however, wrong (p. 350) in saying that the Master
of Ruthin School (1595) had to know Welsh. The Warden of the
Almshouse for old people was to be able to preach Welsh, but
there was no such stipulation with regard to the Master of the
School.

9 The only Grammar School founded in Wales where Welsh
was enjoined to be " the language of the school " was the Welsh
Institution started in Llandovery in 1847 by Thomas Phillips,
aided by Lady Llanover (then Lady Hall) and others. Arch-
deacon Williams, great schoolmaster, great scholar, great Welsh-
man, was the first Warden. This is the language of the Trust
Deed. " The Welsh language shall be taught exclusively during
one hour every school day, and be then the sole medium of
communication in the school, and shall be used at all other
convenient periods as the language of the school. The primary
intent and object of the founder, which is instruction and educa-
tion in the Welsh language, shall be faithfully observed." Alas !
The " Welsh Institution of Llandovery " has long been trans-
formed into " Llandovery College," and " the primary intent and
object " of the pious founder has been with impunity ignored.

3 W. P. Williams' edition, Introduction, p. 76.

4 " Mi a dybiais yu oref adel heibio'r hen eiriau cymreig yr rhai
ydynt wedi tyfu allan o gydnabod a chydarfer y cyffredin, ag a
ddewisais y geiriau howsaf, rhwyddaf, a sathrediccaf i gallwn,
i wneuthyr ffordd yr ymadrodd yu rhydd ac yn ddirwystrus i'r
sawl ni wyddant ond y gymraeg arferedig."

THE WELSH LANGUAGE 303

only those used in common speech, Kyffin was a scholar
and a linguist. His idiom is pure and his style is so
polished that the praise which he bestows on Dr. Griffith
Roberts as a- writer of Welsh, may well be applied to
himself. 1 If, however, we wish to realise the character
and quality of the Welsh in daily use, Vicar Pritchard's
verses afford us better evidence, for Kyffin, though the
delight of scholars, has never been accounted a popular
writer. The " old Vicar's " rhymes, however, attained
national celebrity. Next to the Bible The Welshman's
Candle was easily the most popular of all Welsh books.
It was the avowed design of the Vicar to write in the
ordinary language of the people. He eschewed all
attempts at literary grace. He consciously and de-
liberately refused to follow Salesbury, who had striven
to create a literary language differing from the spoken
language of the people. 2 The fact that for two centuries
The Welshman's Candle maintained its unique popu-
larity in North 3 as well as in South Wales shows that
it was written, as Kyffin tried but failed to write, in
a language which was " understanded of the people."

1 " Darn o waith . . . mor buraidd, mor lathraidd, ag mor
odidawg ei ymadroddiad, na ellir damuno dim perffeithiach yn
hynny o beth."

2 See the author's " letter to the reader " in Rees's edition
(1867).

Am wel'd dwfn-waith enwog Salesbury
Gan y diddysg heb ei hoffi
Cymrais fesur byw cyn blaened
Hawdd i'w ddeall, hawdd i'w 'styried.

The editor, however, thinks that the reference is not to William
Salesbury but to Thomas Salesbury, who brought out at his own
expense the metrical version of the Psalms by Captain William
Middleton, after the author's death.

3 Daniel Owen in his finest novel, e.g., makes Rhys Lewis'
mother in Flintshire quote the " old Vicar."

304 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

The most casual reference to the Vicar's verses will
show the extent to which Welsh had degenerated.
There is hardly a page in which the reader will not find
one or more English words, for which to-day there are
not, in the ordinary speech of the people, Welsh equi-
valents. Stephen Hughes, writing a generation later,
complains that his own Welsh is bad, " for you well
know that, as I write, so we speak in South Wales." 1
He beseeches his readers " to take in good part my
(his) poor Englishfied Welsh, which differs both in words
and phrases and terminations from the good Welsh
they have in Gwynedd." 2 But the Welsh of Stephen
Hughes is as superior to that of Vicar Pritchard as the
Welsh of another Carmarthenshire man, Williams of
Pantycelyn, a century later, is superior to that of
Stephen Hughes.

The deterioration in the language was the necessary
and inevitable result of the changed condition of things
in Wales. The age of Elizabeth produced excellent
translations, dictionaries, and grammars, but little or
no original prose. 3 Griffith Hiraethog and Sion Brwy-
nog, William Llyn and Owen Gwynedd, William Cynwal
and Edmund Prys, Simwnt Fycham and Sion Tudur
and others carried on the poetic tradition in North Wales,
and though their themes were trite, and their methods

1 " Canys chwi wyddoch yn ddigon da mai y modd yr ydwyf
fi yn serif ennu yr ydym ni yn llefaru yn Neheudir Cymru."

2 " I gymmeryd mewn part da fy Nghymraeg wael Saesnigaidd
i sydd a gwahaniaeth ynddi, mewn geiriau ac ymadroddion a
diweddiad geiriau a'r Gymraeg dda sydd ganddynt yng Wynedd."

3 Dr. Morris of Clynog's Athrawaeth GHstnogawl was the
first original prose work printed in Welsh, under the auspices of
Dr. Griffith Roberts at Milan (1568). A supplement Y Drych
Cristionogawl by Dr. Griffith Roberts was published by Rhosier
Smith in 1585.

THE WELSH LANGUAGE 305

of treatment were mere imitations of the old masters
of an earlier and more original age, they not unworthily
kept the torch of Welsh poesy flaming, and did their
best to hand it down to the succeeding generation. 1
But at the end of the sixteenth century, Edmund Prys
was left almost alone. 2 Dr. Sion Dafydd Rhys, in his
introduction of his Grammar (1592), bewails the selfish-
ness, the exclusiveness, and the insensate jealousy of
the bards, who tried to make a mystery of their craft,
and so stifled the life of the Welsh muse. 3 In Glamorgan-
shire the bards of Tir Iarll still sang after the manner of
the school which had refused to obey the rules laid down
in the Carmarthen Eisteddfod of 1451. 4 Their produc-
tions have been published, in recent years, by Hopcyn
and Cadrawd in Hen Gwndidau and Hopcyniaid
Morganmvg, 5 but though these poems are valuable

1 It should not be overlooked, however, that little Welsh
poetry was printed in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
Until the Commonwealth only Edmund Prys's metrical version,
and Capt. Middleton's rendering of the Psalms were published.
The poems of the Elizabethan bards for the most part still remain
unpublished, and even the poems of Dafydd ap Gwilym were not
printed before 1789.

2 Sion Tudur, Simwnt Fychan, and Sion Phylip survived into
the seventeenth century, and there were other bards of lesser
note. But all the greater bards may be said to belong to " the
age of Elizabeth."

3 " Gellir canfod foder ys hirdalmo amser fai mawrarbrydyddion
a chymreigydhion cymry o barth distriwiad ac aghen yr iaith . . .
canys cadw a chudhio o' notaynt y rhei hynn, ac ereill hefyd
eu llyfrau a'u gwybodaethau mywn cistieu a lleoedd dirgel. . . ."
The whole passage is worth careful study, describing as it does
how the destruction of many valuable Welsh MSS. came about.

4 Sir John Morris Jones has told in Cymru the real story of
the Carmarthen Eisteddfod of 1451. The bards of Glamorgan
withdrew as a protest against the imposition of the twenty-four
metres of Welsh prosody, and set up the Gorsedd Tir Iarll.

5 Jarvis & Foster, Bangor.

w.m.w. u

306 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

as throwing light on the social and religious life of the
time, as poetry they are not of much account, and not
a single line which they composed survived in popular
memory. From 1568 to 1798 no Eisteddfod was held
in Gwynedd. 1 Seven Eisteddfodau were held in South
Wales in the sixteenth century, but only eighty all told
attended them. An Eisteddfod was held in Glamorgan
in 1620, and there were only four present. From 1546
to 1644 it has been computed that 269 books were
published by Welshmen or about Wales. 2 Of these
44 were in Latin, 184 in English, and 41 in Welsh. Of
the 41 Welsh books, 37 dealt with religious topics, and
up to the year 1660, only two original prose works had
been published in Welsh, the second being Morgan
Llwyd's Book of the Three Birds. In the greater part of
Wales Welsh was being degraded into a mere patois
which was becoming more and more corrupt, more
infected with English words and idioms, and sinking
into the state of inanition that precedes death, because
it had almost entirely ceased to be the medium of the
religious aspirations or the literary genius of the people.
Its retention in that state would have been a real disaster
to its children. It was of no more benefit to them than
their rude speech is to the savages of Tierra del Fuego.
But by the end of the seventeenth century the con-
dition of things had changed as if by the waving of a

1 This statement is given on the authority of the late Ivor
James ; but Sir J. Morris Jones is of opinion that some Eistedd-
fodau were held in taverns in the seventeenth century.

2 This was the computation of the late Ivor James, sometime
Registrar of the Univ. Coll. of South Wales, about 1888, in the
Red Dragon magazine. But so many fresh discoveries have
since been made that the estimate will have to be revised when
a new and authoritative bibliography of Welsh books, which is
long overdue, has been issued.

THE WELSH LANGUAGE 307

magic wand. The language was purified, an appreciable
number of the people were taught to read, and they
began to appreciate the value of their opportunity.
In 1677 a second edition of Agoriad byr Weddi'r
Arglwydd, " A short introduction to the Lord's Prayer,"
appeared. It had been first published in 1600. It was
translated from the English of William Perkins, one of
the Cambridge Puritans, by the Rev. Robert Holland,
the Rector of Llanddowror. The producer of the
second edition (Stephen Hughes), in his " Letter to the
Reader," explained that he had amended the text
because " it is nearly 80 years since Mr. Holland's book
was first printed, and as with English, so with Welsh,
the language has been greatly purified since that time." x
In the first half of the seventeenth century there was
practically no market for Welsh books. Only 1500
copies of the cheap " little Bible " were printed in 1630,
and, if tradition is to be relied on, a goodly portion of
them remained in the publisher's hands twenty years
later. " Before the year 1654, on the most favourable
estimate, only 3500 Bibles and 1000 New Testaments
in addition to that of Salisbury had been published.
This meant one Bible to every 70 of the inhabitants." 2
Of this number, however, the 1000 New Testaments
were published by Walter Cradock and Vavasour Powell
in 1646. Only 3500 Bibles therefore had been published
before the Puritan Rebellion, and 2000 of them were
designed only for use in the parish churches. But an
amazing change was to come over the scene. Six

1 It would be interesting to compare the two editions in order
to ascertain the nature and extent of Stephen Hughes's amend-
ments. But I have not been able to procure either edition.

2 Sir John Williams's " Address " in the Bible in Wales.

308 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

thousand copies of the Bible and iooo copies of the New
Testament were published during the Commonwealth.

In 1670 Stephen Hughes published the third part of
Vicar Pritchard's Welshman's Candle. In the preface
he stated that after the printing of the first two parts
(in 1646 and 1659), " multitudes learnt to read Welsh
and bought Testaments and Bibles : and so knowledge
and godliness increased in Wales." He went on to say
that the London publishers would not print an edition
of the Welsh Bible because it would take twenty years
to dispose of 6000 copies, " and we who live by our
crafts " said they " cannot wait so long without having
our money back." x Two years later, Stephen Hughes
published an edition of 2000 New Testaments as well as
a complete edition of The Welshman's Candle and a new
edition of Perkin's Catechism. Between 1672 and
1689 he published no less than 20,000 copies of the
Bible and 1000 copies of the New Testament. 2

In 1717 the Rev. Moses Williams, Vicar of Devynock, 3
edited, and the Society for Promoting Christian Know-
ledge brought out, an edition of 10,000 copies of the
Welsh Bible. Ten years later another edition of prob-
ably 10,000 was issued, the first edition having been
exhausted. 4 Though emphasis has been laid on editions

1 Quoted (in English) in Ballinger's " Vicar Pritchard," the
Cymmrodor, vol. xiii. pp. 9-10.

2 Stephen Hughes died in 1688, and did not see the 1689 edition
through the press. His friend and neighbour, the Rev. David
Jones, of Llantyssilio, an Independent preacher, supervised the
printing.

3 " A patriot, to whom we owe an incalculable debt, not only
for the literature which he supplied to, but also for that which he
preserved for, Wales " (Sir John Williams, Bible in Wales, p. 11).

4 The third S.P.C.K. edition of 15,000 copies appeared in 1746,
and the fourth also of 15,000 copies and 5000 New Testaments
in 1752.

THE WELSH LANGUAGE 309

of the Bible, the range of the new literature was not
limited by the growing religious interests of Wales.
Charles Edwards in 167 1 published Hanes y Ffydd
ddiffuant, " The History of the unfeigned Faith," and it
went through three editions in the course of six years.
In 1703 appeared Gweledigaethau y Bardd Cwsg, " The
Visions of the Sleeping Bard," Ellis Wynn's immortal
work, the fount of Welsh pure and undefiled, which still
remains the literary gem of the language. In 1716
Theophilus Evans published the first edition of Drych
y Prif Oesoedd, " The Mirror of the Early Ages," an
imaginative and romantic, but wholly unscientific —
which makes it all the more delightful — history of the
Cymry from primeval days to the reign of Howel Dda.
Written in nervous and idiomatic Welsh, as full as
Homer of striking metaphors and apt similes, its vivid
and dramatic narrative has fascinated seven generations
of Welshmen and still affords entertaining reading even
to those whose faith in the erudition and accuracy of
the old writer has long been shattered. Early in the
eighteenth century Griffith Jones, Llanddowror, started
his circulating schools, where children were taught to
read Welsh. By 1761, the year of Griffith Jones's death,
according to Pantycelyn, 3000 of these schools had been
founded, 120,000 scholars had been taught, and 30,000
copies of the Welsh Bible had been distributed. 1

Hitherto all Welsh books had been printed in England,
mostly in London and Oxford. In 1718 Isaac Carter

1 See Griffith Jones's elegy.

Dacw'r Biblau teg a hyfryd Tair o filoedd o ysgolion

Ddeg ar hugain filoedd llawn Gawd yng Nghymru faith a mwy

Wedi eu trefnu i ddod allan Chwech ugain mil o ysgolheigion

Trwy ei ddwylaw'n rhyfedd Fu a rhagor ynddynt hwy,
iawn ;

310 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

set up the first printing press in Wales at Trefhedyn,
a suburb of Newcastle Emlyn. In 1721 Nicholas
Thomas established a press at Carmarthen, where he
was some years later followed by John Ross, the printer
of Pantycelyn's Hymns and Peter Williams's Bibles.
Lewis Morris for a time (1735) set up a press at Holy-
head, which afterwards found its way to Trefriw. A
press was established in Pontypool in 1740, in Wrexham
in 1745, in Bridgend in 1770, and in Brecon in 1772. 1
During the nineteenth century a stream of publications
was issued out of the Welsh press. But no town could
boast of being the metropolis of Welsh literature. It
is seldom that an English work is published elsewhere
than in London or Edinburgh. Far different has been
the case with Wales. Carmarthen and Carnarvon,
Llanelly and Bangor, Swansea and Bala, Llandovery
and Llanrwst, Cardiff and Denbigh can claim no mono-
poly in the printing of Welsh books. As the demo-
cratic culture of Wales has been widely diffused, so there
has been no national centre for publication. Every
locality can boast of its own famous printing press. 2

Dau argraffiad, glan ddiwygiad, Y goleuni gadd ei enyn
Llawn, ac isel bris i'r gwan, O Rheidol wyllt i Hafren hir
Mewn cabanau fe geir Biblau Tros Plinlimon faith yn union
'Nawr gan dlodion ym mhob Twynodd ar y gogledd dir.
man.

Sir Thomas Phillips (Wales, pp. 284-6) states that in twenty-
four years, 150,212 persons had been taught in these schools to
read the Welsh Bible.

1 Journal of Welsh Bibliographical Society (ed. Dr. Rhys
Phillips) for December, 1918, p. 125.

2 " Pwy all ddweyd . . . pa un ai yng Nghaerfyrddin neu yng
Ngharnarfon, yn Llandyfri neu Llanrwst, yng Nghaergybi neu
yng Nghaerdydd, yn Abertawe neu'r Bala, yn Llanelli neu yn
Ninbych, yr argraffwyd mwyaf o lyfrau Cymraeg ? Mae cariad
at lenyddiaeth a sel dros ddiwylliant wedi eu gwasgar drwy dair

THE WELSH LANGUAGE 311

This has been of infinite advantage to a country like
Wales which from its natural configuration and con-
formation cannot easily centre its activities in one spot.
It enabled the writers of every locality to have ready
access to the press. 1

In this way the ground was prepared, first by the early
work of the Puritans in the seventeenth, and then by
the activities of such men as Moses Williams and Griffith
Jones in the eighteenth century, for the sowing of new
seed by the Methodist Fathers. It is an idle and barren
controversy to dispute as to who was greatest in this
beneficent endeavour to rescue the mother tongue of
Wales from the pit into which she had fallen. All sects
and all parties contributed to the result. But for the
abiding work of the Elizabethan clergy, and the shrewd

sir ar ddeg Cymru, fel nad oes un sir na thre na phentre yn
gallu ymffrostio yu y flaenoriaeth " (Rhamanl Hanes Cymru,

P- 5)-

1 How important even in our days it is for a writer to be in
close proximity to the printer will be appreciated by all authors.
But in days when travelling was difficult and the post unreliable
and uncertain, it is hardly conceivable how Welsh books came
to be printed in London or Milan by compositors who knew no
Welsh. Dr. Sion Dafydd Rhys, in his Preface, makes a sly
allusion to his sufferings at the hands of the " printer's devil."
" Ie (ysgatfydh) chwychwi a dhywedweh 'phy phy ' dyma air yn
ghhamm, a dyma arall yn ghham ; ac my bydh gennych onyd
ymgyfarfod a'r camm, a neidio o gamm i gamm : minheu (ony
bydh gennych swydh a fo gwelh) a gynghorwn ywch ynn eych
unswydh fynat yn dhiarchen (sef yn esgeirnoeth droednoeth er
mwyn dwyn eych penyd) hyd yn Ghaer Ludh : ac yno a'ch
cappieu yn eych dwylo, deisyf o honoch arr y Printydhion wella
peth ar eu dwylo pryd y printiont dhim cymraec o hynn i maes."
Stephen Hughes, who was commended by Thomas Charles for
correcting so many mistakes which had found their way into
previous editions of the Bible (Hughes says in his preface to
Canwyll y Cymry (1672) that there were " hundreds " of printer's
errors in the New Testament of 1648), suffered greatly from the
mistakes of compositors (see preface of 1672).

312 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

genius of Vicar Pritchard, the task set before the Puritan
Fathers would have been impossible of accomplishment.
But for the timely activities of Stephen Hughes and his
fellow-labourers, the zeal and patriotic energy of Moses
Williams and Griffith Jones would have come too late.
But for all that had been done by Churchmen and
Nonconformists alike, Howell Harries and Daniel
Rowlands would not have been able to make their appeal,
with such instantaneous success, to the conscience of
their countrymen. 1 At the impartial judgment bar of
history, let all who served and sacrificed for Wales and
Welsh receive their due meed of recognition and of
praise. If Paul planted, and Apollos watered, let
us in grateful humility thank God, who alone gave the
increase.

After, in this strange and haphazard manner, the
ancient British speech had been rescued from what
seemed to be its inevitable doom, and a reading public
began to be formed, a literary revival followed. It
is beyond the scope of this work to trace in detail, or at
all, the various literary activities of eighteenth century
Welshmen. Lewis and Richard Morris, Goronwy Owen
and Ieuan Brydydd Hir, Owen Myfyr, Iolo Morganwg,
and Dr. William Owen Pughe, Jack Glan-y-Gors and
Morgan John Rhys are shining names which the lovers
of Welsh literature will never willingly forget. At
the end of the eighteenth century, the Eisteddfod was
revived. Literary Societies, such as the Cymmrodorion

1 Dr. Thomas Rees (Hist, of Nonconformity in Wales, p. 313)
points out that the first Methodist Revivals broke out in neigh-
bourhoods where there were already dissenting congregations.
Anglesea and Carnarvon, where there had been little Puritan
activity, were the last to come under the influence of the Method-
ist Revival.

THE WELSH LANGUAGE 313

and the Cymreigyddion, were formed. Thomas Charles
started the Sunday Schools, where children were taught
to read, and adults and children were taught to think —
one of the finest educational institutions in the world.
Literary coteries began to grow up in the nineteenth
century even in the most remote corners of the land, 1
so that before ever the State took in hand the education
of the people in 1870, the peasants and artisans of
Wales had evolved for themselves a means of demo-
cratic culture, such as no other country in Europe has
enjoyed. We hear much of the " Republic of letters " ;
it is the glory of Wales that she has, in spite of count-
less difficulties, established such a republic amidst her
mountains. The range of her literature is not great.
It is crass folly to compare Twm o'r Nant with Shakes-
peare, or Hiraethog, potent genius though he was, with
Milton, or even Islwyn with Wordsworth. Wales has
as yet had no leisured Tennysons or travelled Brown-
ings. Her poets and men of letters have nearly all been
free from " the pedantry of courts and schools." No
Welsh writer has ever lived by his pen. They are in the
most literal sense of the word " amateurs," who employ
their scanty leisure in the literary pursuits which they
love. Cromwell, in a famous passage in one of his letters
to the Long Parliament, said that he preferred to gentle-
men " those russet-coated captains who know what
they fight for, and love what they know." The russet-

1 See, e.g., Myrddin Fardd's collection of letters between the
bards of North Wales, and especially of Carnarvonshire, in his
Adgof uwch anghof. Myrddin, who is a blacksmith by trade, has
devoted his life to collecting Welsh books and documents, and
has also published excellent volumes on the " Folklore " and
the "Dialect words (gwerin-eiriau) " of Carnarvonshire, and on
" Welsh Place-names," — a fine illustration of the " democratic
culture " of Wales.

314 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

coated men of letters of Wales have not made, and
probably can never make, a " profession " of literature.
When they are taunted, as too often they have been,
with the meagreness of their output this should in fair-
ness be remembered. And who shall say who is the real
" happy warrior," the man who lives by his pen, or he
who finds refuge and solace from the work-a-day cares
of the world in holding communion with the " angel of
the vale and the muse of the stream." * At all events
such have been the men who have created the beautiful
literature of Modern Wales. Islwyn was a preacher ;
Ceiriog, who need fear no comparison even with Burns,
was a stationmaster ; Dewi Wyn o Eifion was a farmer ;
Dewi Wyn o Essyllt a miller ; Hiraethog learnt the
rules of Welsh prosody while tending his father's sheep
on the mountain-side at Llansannan, Watcyn Wyn
while working underground in a coal-pit ; Eben Fardd
was a weaver ; Telynog earned his living before the mast
when still a child, and during the last four years of his
all too short life he worked as a collier at Aberdare ;
Daniel Owen, our national novelist, was a tailor ; Thomas
Stephens, one of the sanest critics and one of the most
erudite Welsh scholars of the last century, was a chemist.
The same thing is true of the whole of Welsh national
life. During the last forty years there has been built
up a noble structure of national education. It is not
perfect. We have done some things which we ought
not to have done, and we have left undone some
things which we ought to have done. But such
as it is, it is the handiwork of the people of Wales,
and the architects who conceived and the builders who
erected it are discovering what is weak and defective in
1 " Angel y dyffryn ac awen yr afon " — Islwyn.

THE WELSH LANGUAGE 315

its construction. As they had the vision to see and
the courage to act in the past, so we may hope they
will not fail to face manfully the new problems which
confront them and make strong what is weak and com-
plete what is defective. Most of all, provision must
be made to ensure that the education of the schools
shall not " quench the spirit " or stifle the native culture
of the Welsh people. If this is to be done, the first
thing to be remembered is that the instrument and
medium of that culture has been and is the vernacular
speech. No language can live without a worthy
literature ; the names which have been mentioned —
only a few selected almost at random from a " cloud of
witnesses " who might have been cited — attest the fact
that Wales has a native literature, limited it is true in
range and compass, but within those limits unsurpassed
by that of any modern nation. But there is a greater
and more pressing consideration. The native literature,
as it has been produced by the people, is also read by
the people, and the circle of readers is as wide to-day
as — perhaps wider than — it ever was. " Some months
ago," said Sir John Williams in 1904, " I took a parcel
of books to the binder. They had seen better days, and
wanted a new suit. They did not look very respectable,
and I attributed their condition to neglect and abuse ;
but my eyes were opened to the cause of it by the binder,
who expressed his admiration for the use which had been
made of them, adding that he rarely saw English books
which showed signs of having done such service. Their
condition was not the result of neglect or ill-treatment,
as I had supposed, but of the attention which they had
commanded, and the service which they had rendered.
I felt proud of my ragged company as well as of my

316 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

countrymen." 1 Some districts of Wales have already
been Anglicised. Is the Eisteddfod succeeded there by
a Literary Institute ? Is the well-thumbed Ceiriog
replaced by a dog-eared copy of Pope or Gray or Moore
or Scott ? Is Dickens substituted for Daniel Owen ?
The wisest and most clear-sighted leaders of modern
Wales have spoken with no uncertain voice on the duty
of this generation of Welshmen. " Wales," said the late
Dean Vaughan of Llandaff, " has a patriotic and a
religious duty still towards the language in which she
was born. She has, first, to see that it be articulately
and grammatically formed and shaped in all its par-
ticulars, so that it be no patois of chance .or trick, but
a language worthy of the respect of other languages,
worthy to become the study of the learned and training
speech of the young. Next, that it shall have a literature
all its own, a literature without a knowledge of which the
education of a scholar shall be confessedly incomplete,
— a literature unapproachable save through its language,
and therefore securing to that language the undying
interest and unstinting effort of all who would think or
know." 2 The monumental work of Dr. Gwenogfryn
Evans, who has, unaided, reproduced diplomatically
and in facsimile a vast amount of our ancient literature,
with a skill and a scholarly accuracy which has evoked
the admiration of all who are most competent to form
a judgment ; 3 of the late Sir John Rhys, Principal

1 " Address " prefacing the Bible in Wales, p. 12.

2 Southall's Wales and her Language.

3 E.g. Sir J. Morris Jones (Cymmrodor, vol. xxviii. p. 39) says
that " they surpass anything that has ever been achieved in the
way of printed texts ; Dr. Evans has developed the art of
printing in facsimile to a point never before reached."

THE WELSH LANGUAGE 317

of Jesus College, Oxford, most modest and erudite of
scholars ; and of Sir John Morris Jones, poet, philologist,
grammarian, and man of letters, has already almost
satisfied the first part of Dean Vaughan's pious aspira-
tion. Nor need Welshmen despair of the concluding
task. Dafydd ap Gwilym, the Mabinogion, and Ceiriog
are the study and the delight of French, German and
Russian scholars and literati. Even English scholarship
is beginning to pay attention to the unexplored treasures
at its door. The young school of Welsh poets, a nest
of singing birds, bids fair to rival and perhaps to surpass
the glories of the past. 1 But no live literature can be
produced if the language in which it is written is dead.
Shilleto's Latin may be as smooth, as idiomatic, and as
correctly perfect as Cicero's Letters to Atticus ; but while
Cicero will be read as long as men care for great writing,
Shilleto is already only a name. The last word on the
subject was spoken by the late Principal, Thomas
Charles Edwards, who was the bearer of two resounding
names in the story of Wales, and who himself was not
unworthy to bear them. " To permit the people of
Wales," he said, 2 " to lose their knowledge of literary
Welsh, the language of the Welsh Bible, so that they
will understand no other Welsh than the mongrel patois
of the streets, is to abandon deliberately the creative

1 It has been claimed that the New School of Welsh Poets
can challenge comparison with the modern poets of any country.
Be that as it may, it is certain that the poetry of Gwynn Jones
and Morris Jones, or W. J. Griffith and Eifion Wyn, or Parry
Williams and Williams Parry, or Sarnicol, Wil Ifan, and Gwili, —
to mention only a few names — shows the ineradicable energy of
Welsh genius. Nor should one forget the remarkable resurgence
of the Welsh drama in recent years, under the inspiration of such
men as D. T. Davies, J. O. Francis, and R. J. Berry.

2 Southall's Wales and her Language, p. 185.

318 THE MAKING OF MODERN WALES

influences of the past, to break for ever with the
ennobling examples of our great men, to throw away
the heritage of many centuries, in order to start, forsooth,
from the low intellectual and moral condition of savage
tribes. Let English come and take possession if it can.
But let the intellectual and moral life of the future be
the natural development of the past. This it cannot be
if we foolishly and criminally neglect x to teach literary
Welsh until we have accomplished the task of teaching
literary English. . . . The people must be taught not
only to read the Welsh of Bishop Morgan, but also the
Welsh of Goronwy Owen, and to feel in the very depths
of their being the creative influences of the past that
should always be present, and of the dead that never
die."

1 " What if by our neglect of Welsh we are throwing away a
great gift of Providence ? " (Dr. Rowland Williams, p. 259 ;
Lays from the Cambrian Lyre, by Goronva Camlan, 1846).

INDEX TO NAMES AND SUBJECTS

Acts of Parliament, King to
do right in the Marches to
such as do complain (3 Edw.
I. c. 17), 33 ; the Lords-
Marcher annexed to Crown
of England (28 Edw. III.
c - 2 ). 33 : to abolish " ar-
thel " and " commortha "
(26 Hen. VIII. c. 6), 57, 62 ;
to abolish forest customs
(27 Hen. VIII. c. 7), 62, 67 ;
recalcitrant jurors to be sent
to prison (26 Hen. VIII. c. 4),
62 ; to punish Welshmen for
assaults in border English
counties (28 Hen. VIII. c.
11), 63 ; Lord Chancellor to
appoint Justices of the Peace
for the eight ancient counties
of Wales (27 Hen. VIII. c. 5),
65-67 ; union of England and
Wales (27 Hen. VIII. c. 26),
68 seq. ; provision for pay-
ment of Welsh members of
Parliament (35 Hen. VIII.
c. 11), 71 n ; King to define
limits of Welsh shires (28
Hen. VIII. c. 3), 72 ; ex-
tension of time for delimiting
Welsh shires (31 Hen. VIII.
c. 11), 72 ; to set up Courts
of Great Sessions and to pro-
vide for the government of
Wales (34 & 35 Hen. VIII.

c.26), 72 seq., 75 seq.; lim-
itation of number of justices
removed (5 W. & M. c. 4),
79 ; to abolish Court of the
Council of the Marches
(1 Will. & M. c. 27), 126 ;
second judge appointed to
each Court of Great Sessions
(18 Eliz. c. 8), 141 ; to
prescribe the functions of
Sheriffs (1 Edw. VI. c. 10),
160 ; Justices of the Court
of Great Sessions to nomi-
nate sheriffs (1 W. & M. c.
27), 160 ; Welsh sheriffs
exempted from appearance
in Court of Exchequer (3
Geo. I. c. 15), 160 ; to
abolish Court of Great Ses-
sions (1 Will. IV. c. 70),
161, 190 seq. ; to limit
power of Great Sessions to
remove actions from lower
courts (21 James I. c. 23),
171 ; further limitation (12
Geo. I. c. 29), 172 ; further
limitation (19 Geo. III. c.
70), 172 ; non-suit of plain-
tiffs recovering less than
^10 against defendants re-
siding in Wales (Rice's Act,
33 Geo. III. c. 68), 172 seq. ;
reformation of procedure of
Great Sessions (5 Geo. IV.

3 r 9

32o INDEX TO NAMES AND SUBJECTS

c. 1 06), 175 seq. ; to enjoin
translation of Bible into
Welsh (1563), 260 ; Tolera-
tion Act 1689, 274 ; re-
pressive Acts against dis-
senters after the Restoration,
274.

Aggazzari, Father, Jesuit
priest, instructs English
students at Rome, 209 ;
succeeds Dr. Morris as Rec-
tor of English College at
Rome, 220 ; Dr. Barrett's
advice in a letter how to
treat Welsh students, 222 n ;
letter to Parsons on Cardi-
nal Allen's death, 236 n.

Allen, Doctor William, after-
wards Cardinal, founds semi-
nary at Douay, 203 ; sum-
moned to Rome to advise
Pope Gregory XIII. as to
starting an English College
there, 207 ; his estimate
of character of Dr. Morris
of Clynog, 210 ; writes to
Owen Lewis (afterwards
Bishop of Cassano) about the
conduct of his nephew, Hugh
Griffith, 217 ; appointed
Bishop of Durham, 233 ;
Cardinal, 233 ; relations
with Owen Lewis, 234 n ;
draws away in old age from
the Jesuits, 236 ; described
as a protector and favourer
of the Jesuits, 239. See
also under Owen Lewis, Dr.
Morris of Clynog, Robert
Parsons.

Anarchy in Wales, 4, 5, 6, 41-

42-

Arthel, or arddel, 57-58 ; abo-
lished, 129.

Arthur, Prince, elder son of
Hen. VII., called after the

Cymric national hero, 39 ;
holds his court in the
Marches, 44 ; effect of his
death, 46 ; dies at Ludlow,
92.

Attorneys, Welsh, 162 seq.

Attorney-General, 160-161 ;
mentioned in 1 Will. IV. c- 70
as " His Majesty's Attorney-
General," 161.

Augustine, Father, see Father
David or Augustine Baker.

Bacon, Francis, Lord, appears
as counsel for the Court of
the Marches against the
Border Shires, 123-124 ;
sends Advancement of Learn-
ing to Prince Charles in
Latin, 294.

Baker, Father David or Augus-
tine, Benedictine monk, 245-
246 ; share in revival of
O.S.B. 232 seq. ; dies of the
plague in London (1640), 257.

Bar, the Welsh, until 1830,
161 seq.

Bards, Welsh, and the Tudors,

35-37-

Barrett, Dr., succeeds Cardinal
Allen as Principal of Douay,
234 ; letter to Parsons about
the two Bennetts, 238.

Baxter, Richard, at Ludlow,
93-94 ; description of life
at Ludlow in 1633, 94.

Beaufort, Duke of, President
of the Council of the Marches
(167 2- 1 688) ; his Progress,
95 ; feast at Ludlow, 95 ;
wealthiest subject, 102 ;
account of Progress written
by his secretary, Thomas
Dingley, 102.

Benedictines, foundation of
St. Gregory's at Douay, 250

INDEX TO NAMES AND SUBJECTS 321

seq. ; revival of, in England,
252 seq.

Bennett, John, seminary priest,
205 ; leader of Welsh faction
in Rome, 237.

Benyon, Att.-Gen. for Chester,
on Welsh equitable jurisdic-
tion, 138.

Bickwell, on number of equity
cases in Carmarthen Great
Sessions, 134.

Bill, proceeding by, 145.

Blackwell, Father George,
Jesuit, Archpriest, 244.

Blyth, Bishop, President of the
Council of the Marches, 46.

Bolingbroke, see Henry IV.

Bosworth, battle of, 36-38.

Bourne, Bishop, last ecclesias-
tical President of the Court
of the Marches, 97.

Brecknockshire, new hundred
Courts in, abolished by the
Council of the Marches, 78.

Bridge-water, Earl of, President
of the Council (1631-1641) ;
relations with sheriffs, 78 ;
increases number of Council,
101.

Brougham, Lord, on Welsh
judges, 154 seq. ; on lines
and recoveries, 178.

Buckingham, Duke of, Lord of
Brecknock, 34 ; failure or
plot against Richard III., 36.

Buckley, Father Sigebert,
last Benedictine monk, 252.

Bulkeley, Lord, on Welsh
Judges, 155.

Bulkeley, Sir Richard, against
appointment of Justices of
the Peace in the ancient
Welsh counties, 67.

Burke, Edmund, freedom the
cure for anarchy, 1 ; descrip-
tion of Wales, 4 ; effect of
W.M.W. X

Hen. VIII. 's legislation on
Wales, 7-9.

Burton, Mr. Justice, on equit-
able jurisdiction of Great
Sessions, 130, 137.

Butler, Samuel, author of
Hudibras, at Ludlow, 95.

Callice, John, a pirate, lodged
at Haverfordwest, 108.

Cambriol, Welsh colony in
Newfoundland, 85.

Campion, John, Jesuit martyr,
sent to England, 232.

Capias, procedure by, 150 seq.

Carbery, Earl of. President of
the Council, 95 ; charged
with malversation, 102 ; re-
moved from office for mal-
treating his servants, 102 ;
restores Ludlow Castle and
Tickinhill Palace, 126.

Cardiff, piracy in, inquiry into,
108.

Carmarthenshire, Catholicism
in, 111-112 ; Samuel Davies
indicted in 1699, in m.

Carnarvonshire, pirates in a
haven in, 108.

Carne, Sir Edward, Queen
Mary's ambassador in Rome,
208.

Carter, Isaac, printer at Tref-
hedyn, 1719, 309-310.

Catholicism, survival of old
practices in Wales, 196 ;
only three Protestant mar-
tyrs, 197 ; Duke of Feria on
Catholicism in Wales, 197.

Cawdor, Earl of, letter to Lord
Chancellor on Welsh judica-
ture, 134-135 ; on Welsh
judges, 155 seq. ; on Welsh
attorneys, 163 ; on Act of
1824 to reform Great Ses-
sions, 176 seq.

322 INDEX TO NAMES AND SUBJECTS

Cecil, Sir William, Lord Burgh-
ley, Welsh descent, 23 ;
Welsh letter from Dr. Morris,
228.

Certiorari, removal of Welsh
cases to England by, 170 ;
attempt of Act of 1824 to
remove grievance, 181 seq. ;
evidence before Commission,
182-183.

Chamberlain, or Cursitor, 159.

Chapuys, Imperial ambassa-
dor, states Wales is ripe for
revolt, 10; distress of Welsh-
men at loss of native laws,
24.

Charles, Rev. Thomas, of Bala,
joins Methodists, 277 ; re-
luctant to secede from Esta-
blished Church, 280 ; reasons
which compelled secession,
280-284 ; contrast between
position of Church people
and dissenters in his Vindica-
tion (1802), 285 ; organising
capacity, 285.

Churchyard, Thomas, descrip-
tion of Ludlow, 90 ; writing
for sixty years, 93.

Clare, Gilbert de, meets Prince
Edward at Ludlow, 91.

Clerk of indictments, 159.

Clynog, or Clenocke, Dr. Morris
of, Warden of English Hospi-
tal at Rome, 208 ; witness
to Cardinal Pole's will, 208 ;
nominated, but not conse-
crated, Bishop of Bangor,
209 ; first Rector of English
College at Rome, 208 seq. ;
Cardinal Allen's estimate of,
210B ; Parsons's estimate
of, 210 n ; removed from
Rectorship, 220 ; drowned,
220 ; Welsh letter to Sir W.
Cecil, 225

Clynog, or Clenocke, Morgan,
nephew of Dr. Morris, 214.

Colonies, Welshmen share in
founding, 84.

Commission, to inquire into
Welsh laws and customs in
r 535. 70-71 ; to divide Wales
into counties, 70.

Commortha, or cymmorthau,

57. 58, 59-

Concessit solvere: history ; 145
seq. ; Rice Vaughan on, 146-
147 ; origin of, 146 ; not pecu-
liar to Wales, 148 ; pro-
cedure, 148 ; original writ
not necessary, 148 ; New
Rule, 149 ; criticism of, by
Common Law Commissioners
in 1829, 149; popularity of,
150.

Corbet, Sir Andrew, Vice-
President of the Council, 117.

Corbett, Jerome, member of
the Council, Gerard's sketch,
118.

Coroners, two for each county,

79-
Court of the Council of
the Marches : origin, 42
seq. ; established in 1471,
42 ; revived by Hen. VII.,
44-47 ; complaint against
encroachment by Lord
Ferrers, 48-49 ; complaint
by bailiff and burgesses of
Brecon, 50 ; complaint by
Thomas Phillips, 50-51 ;
complaint by Sir Edward
Croft, 51 ; recognised by
Act of 1542, 76 ; legal posi-
tion contrasted with that
of the Council of the North
and the Star Chamber, 77 ;
development of, 87 seq. ;
effect of Act of 1542 on
its position, 87 ; legal juris-

INDEX TO NAMES AND SUBJECTS 323

diction, 88; met at Here-
ford, Worcester, Gloucester,
Tewkesbury, Hurtlebury,
Oswestry, Wrexham, Shrews-
bury, Bewdley, and Ludlow,
88-89 ; its " Star Chamber
jurisdiction " abolished in
1641, 101 ; civil jurisdiction
in abeyance till Restoration,
10 1 ; most of the records
lost 103 ; relation to Star
Chamber, 103 ; functions,
104-106 ; President nearly
always the Lord Lieutenant
of the twelve counties of
Wales, 105 ; its tolerance
of recusancy, iog ; no inter-
ference with Puritans, 113 ;
not specifically an equity
court, 113 ; the real court
of equity for Wales, 113 ;
not intended to be a rival
to Court of Great Sessions,

114 ; but the Court of the
poorer litigants, 114; en-
croachments by it on juris-
diction of Great Sessions,

115 ; officials too numerous,
116; procedure 118-120 ;
instructions of Privy Council
in 1516, 120-121 ; do. in
1586, 121 ; motion to
abolish it in 1593, 121 ;
objections to, 121-2 ; the
court of the poor, 122 ;
enmity of border counties,
122-124 > Bristol exempted
from jurisdiction, 122 ; case
of Farley, 122 ; jurisdiction
trial attended by James I.,

124 ; adverse report in 1641,

125 ; civil jurisdiction re-
sumed at Restoration, 125 ;
abolition of, 126-127.

Court of Great Sessions :
history, 128 seq. ; same

jurisdiction as English
courts, 129 ; equitable juris-
diction, 129 seq. ; incom-
pleteness of it, 134 seq. ; effect
of abolition of the Court
of the Marches, 138-139 ;
procedure and forms of,
after English model, 139 ;
differences from English
Courts 139 seq. ; uncer-
tainty as to time of sitting,
140 ; popularity of, 141 ;
waste of time, 141 ; sittings
explained by Mr. Justice
Hey wood, 142 ; equity
cases when tried 143 ;
pleadings settled in court

143 ; seals 143 ; Chamber-
lain a Chancery official 144 ;
function of Chamberlain,

144 ; actions sued by bill not
by original writ, 144 ; judges,
152 seq. ; Chamberlain, 159 ;
prothonotary, 159 ; secon-
dary, 159 ; marshal, 159 ;
clerk of indictments, 159 ;
attorney-general, 1 60-161 ;
the Bar, 1 61 -162 ; attorneys,
162-164; cheapness of, as
compared with English
Courts, 164 and n ; little
friction with Court of the
Marches, 164 ; no inter-
ference by Westminster
Courts till Restoration, 165 ;
jealousy of English Courts,

165 ; decision of judges
that judgment in England
cannot be executed in Wales,

166 ; decision in Lampley v.
Thomas, 166 seq. ; Lord
Mansfield's judgment in
Mostyn v. Fabriges, 167 ;
Lloyd v. Jones, 167 ; Penry
v. Jones, 168 ; how decision
in Lloyd v. Jones was

3 2 4 INDEX TO NAMES AND SUBJECTS

obtained, 168 ; effect of
decision, 169 ; Rice's Act,

169 ; Russell on effects of
Rice's Act, 169 ; supported
by Tidd's Practice 169 ;
Welsh cases taken to nearest
English county by certiorari

170 ; relations with inferior
courts, 170 seq. ; attempts
to reform by legislation, 172
seq. ; effect of Rice's Act,
172 ; last effort to reform
procedure in 1824, 175 seq. ;
fines and recoveries, 177
seq. ; witnesses from outside
jurisdiction, 179 ; new trials,
179-180 ; no security for
money paid into court, 182 ;
report of Select Committee
of House of Commons, 185 ;
report of Committee of 18 17,
185 ; report of Commission
of 1 82 1, 185-6 ; criticism of
Report of 1821, 186-7 '> re_
port of Commission of 1828,
187 ; Welsh M.P.'s against
abolition, 188-190 ; petitions
against abolition, 188 ; act
to abolish passed without a
division, 190 ; why it was
passed, 191- 192 ; Oldnall
Russell on abolition, 192-
193 ; dangers attending
abolition, 192 ; opinion of
Sir D. Brynmor- Jones, K.C.,
192-193.

Cradock, Walter : few preachers
in Wales, 264 ; curate at
Cardiff, 269 : described by
Laud as a " bold ignorant
young fellow," 270; con-
verts Morgan Lloyd and
Vavasour Powell, 270 ; pro-
tected by Sir Robert Harley,
113, 270; became Wroth 's
assistant, 270 ; his liberal

views on feeedom of con-
science, 270 ; no scruple
about accepting State pay,
270.

Creed, entertains English stu-
dents at Rome, 218.

Croft, Sir Edward, Vice-Cham-
berlain of South Wales, 51.

Croft, Thomas, 51.

Cromwell, Oliver, 313.

Cromwell, Thomas, Earl of
Essex, 11 ; Welsh connec-
tions, 17 ; character, 17 ;
More's advice, 47.

Davydd ap Llewelyn, 42.

Davies, Bishop Richard, trans-
lates Prayerbook, and helps
W. Salesbury to translate
New Testament, 260.

Davies, Samuel, of Llandilo,
priest, indicted at Carmar-
then for saying mass, 112 n.

Dere, Piers, murder of, 61.

Dervel Gadaru, image of, 195.

Dewi Sant, 195.

Douay, college of, 203 seq. ;
founded by Dr. Allen, 204 ;
helped by Morgan Phillips
and Owen Lewis, 204 ; Bene-
dictine seminary, founded by
John Roberts, aided by
Leander Jones, 250 seq.

Dudley, Robert, Earl of War-
wick, President of the Coun-
cil of the Marches, 96.

Edward I., Welsh policy, 3, 4,
29 seq. ; when Prince meets
Gilbert de Clare at Ludlow,
91.

Edward III., policy towards
Lords Marches, 33 ; with
Roger Mortimer at Ludlow,
91.

INDEX TO NAMES AND SUBJECTS 325

Edward IV., established Coun-
cil of the Marches in 1471,
42.

Edwards, Charles, author of
Hanes y Ffydd Ddiffuant, 309.

Edwards, John, of Chirk, exa-
mined by Whitgift for allow-
ing Mass in his house, 109 ;
tortured, no; cast into
prison, no.

Edwards, Principal Thomas
Charles, on the preservation
of Welsh, 317-8.

Elias, Rev. John, ordained at
Bala, 279 ; growing fame,
281 ; a weaver, 284.

Elizabeth, Queen, attitude to-
wards Wales, 23.

Englefield, Mr. Justice, death,

73-
Englefield, Sir Francis, letter

to Philip of Spain after

Armada, 266 n.

Erbery, Rev. William, Vicar
of St. Mary's, Cardiff, reluc-
tance to sever connection
with Established Church,
269 ; relations with Wroth,
269.

Eure, Lord, President of the
Council (1607-1616), 101.

Evans, Dr. Gwenogvryn,
Mostyn MSS., 54.

Evans, John, on Concessit
Solvere, 149.

Evans, Philip, Jesuit, 223.

Evans, Chancellor, Silvan, in-
fluence of dissenters on Welsh
literature, 266 n.

Evans, Rev. Theophilus, author
of Drych y Prif Oesoedd, 277 ;
estimate of merits of work,

3°9-
Evans, Rev. Christmas, farm
labourer, 284 ; his genius,
285.

Farley, case of, in reference to
jurisdiction of the Court of
the Marches over border
shires, 123.

Ferrers, Lord, of Chartley,
appointed Chief Justice and
Chamberlain of South Wales,
48 ; letter to the President
of the Council of the Mar-
ches, 48 ; quarrel with Rhys
ap Griffith of Dinevor, 50.

Fines and Recoveries, 177-
179 ; costlier in Wales than
in England, 178 ; effect of
Act of 1824, 178 seq. ;
Brougham on, 178.

Flenley, Register of the Council
of the Marches, 43 n.

Gavelkind, abolished, 80, 129.

Gerard, William, Vice-Presi-
dent of the Court of the
Marches, afterwards Lord
Chancellor of Ireland, esti-
mate of Bishop Rowland's
administration, 53 ; Dis-
course on the State of Wales,
12-13, no; origin of the
Council of the Marches, 44 ;
complains in 1576 that
Council has deteriorated,
116; too many officials, 116;
character sketches of mem-
bers of the Court of the
Marches, n 7-1 18; is of
opinion that one of the
judges should know Welsh,
48 ; procedure of the Court,
1 1 8-9.

Gerard, Lord, President of the
Council (1616-7), 101.

Gifford, Dr. William, Dean
of Lille, afterwards Arch-
bishop of Rheims, 238 ;
introduced to Borromeo's
household by Owen Lewis,

326 INDEX TO NAMES AND SUBJECTS

238 ; supporter of Bene-
dictine Seminary of St.
Gregory's at Douay, 250.

Glasynys, on monastic life,
199 n.

Goldwell, Bishop, of St. Asaph,
208.

Griffith ap Nicholas, a Lan-
castrian, 36.

Griffith, Ellis, statement that
Bishop Rowland Lee hanged
5000 men, 54.

Griffith, Hugh, nephew of
Owen Lewis, 217 ; letter to
Allen about Jesuits in Rome,
218 ; joy at English students
leaving College at Rome,
218; in communication with
Bennett, leader of the Welsh
faction in Rome in 1594,
237 n.

Gwinn, Robert, seminary
priest, 205.

Haddock, Richard, account of
racial dissensions between
Welsh and English at Rome,
212, 214.

Harries, Howell, starts Metho-
dist Revival, 275 ; works
with dissenters, 275 ; hears
Daniel Rowlands preach for
first time, 276 ; converts
Williams of Pantycelyn, 276 ;
an Evangelical Churchman
throughout his life, 277-278 ;
against separating from the
Established Church, 278.

Heath, Bishop, of Worcester,
President of the Council,

97-
Henry VII., 37-40 ; claims the

throne by conquest, 39 ;

descent, 39-40 ; pride in

Welsh descent, 40 ; revives

Council of the Marches, 44 ;

death, 46 ; entertained by
Welsh rhymers, 81 ; grant
of ^20 a year to his Welsh
nurse and her husband,
81 n.

Henry VIII., Welsh policy,
8 seq., n-13, 27, 49 ; char-
acter, 18 seq., 47 seq. ; created
Prince of Wales, 46 ; em-
powered to suspend or repeal
Act of Union, 71.

Herbert, Lord, of Cher bury,
autobiography, 5 ; History
of the reign of Henry VIII.,
16, 27 ; sent in his youth to
Denbighshire to learn Welsh,
82.

Herbert, Sir Richard, death of,

73-
Herbert, Sir William, first Earl
of Pembroke of the second
creation, 56 ; speaking
Welsh in Court, 81 ; Griffith
Roberts's tribute, 81 ;
William Llyn's elegy, 81 m;
reference in Hen Gwndidau,
81 n ; Miss Skeel and Owen
Edwards, 82 n ; President
of the Council, 96 ; second
term of office, 97 ; most
powerful subject in England,

97-
Heylin, Alderman Rowland,

defrayed part of expenses of
publishing in 1630 " the
little Bible," 261.
Heywood, Mr. Justice, on
sittings of Great Sessions,
142 ; on equitable juris-
diction of Great Sessions,

132-3, I34- 8 -
Holland, Rev. Robert, trans-
lates A Short Introduction
to the Lord's Prayer, 307 ;
2nd edit., published by
Stephen Hughes, 307.

INDEX TO NAMES AND SUBJECTS 327

Holt, Lord, was the first to
see utility of general declara-
tion, 147.

Howel Aerddren, 36.

Hughes, Rev. Stephen, in
agreement with doctrine of
Church, 273 ; on preser-
vation of Welsh, 299 seq. ;
on purification of Welsh
307 ; publications, 308.

Ieuan Brydydd Hir, influence
of dissenters on Welsh litera-
ture, 266 n.

James I. attends inquiry into
jurisdiction of the Council
of the Marches, 124.

Jamaica, Welshmen help in
colonising, 85.

Jesuits, connection with English
College at Rome, 209 seq. ;
side with English students
against the Welsh, 218 ;
control the College, 220 ;
few Welsh, 223, 230 n ; at-
tract English Catholics, 232 ;
capture control of English
mission field, 225, 232 ;
physical force party, 226 ;
support Philip of Spain, 227-
228 ; opposed by Welsh
Catholic exiles, 228 seq. ;
230 n ; opposed by Owen
Lewis, 234 n ; at zenith of
success, 235 ; favoured by
Cardinal Allen, 239 ; Welsh
students at Rome opposed
to, in 1594, 242. See also
Owen Lewis, Cardinal Allen,
Robert Parsons, Dr. Morris,
Thomas Morgan, Archbishop
Gifford.

Joan ap Hoell, widow, ab-
ducted, 60.

Johnson, Dr. Samuel, attitude
towards preservation of
Celtic languages, 299 ;
scheme for preserving
Welsh, 299 n ; suggested re-
publishing Sion Dafydd
Rhys's Grammar, ib.

Joinville, Sieur de, visits his
brother at Ludlow, 91.

Jones, Rev. David, of Llangan.
joins Methodists, 277 ; pre-
sides at Llangeitho Associa-
tion in 1810, 279.

Jones, Rev. Edmund, of Ponty-
pool, co-operates with H.
Harries, 275.

Jones, Father John, alias Lean-
der, Benedictine monk, birth
and education, 225 ; cham-
ber-fellow of Laud at St.
John's College, Oxford, 245 ;
converted by Father Gerard,
the Jesuit, 246 ; goes to
Valladolid to the Jesuit
College, 246 ; forsakes the
Jesuits and joins the Bene-
dictines, 246 ; helps John
Roberts to found St. Gre-
gory's College at Douay,
250 ; succeeds Roberts as
Prior in 1610, 256 ; comes
to England in 1634 at Laud's
invitation 256 ; dies in
London Dec. 1635, 257.

Jones, John, M.P. for Carmar-
then, opposes abolition of
Court of Great Sessions, 188-
190.

Jones, Robert, Jesuit, 223.

Jones, Rev. Samuel, of
Brynllywarch, declines

episcopal ordination, 272.

Judges, Welsh, 152 seq. ; num-
ber of, doubled, 152-153 ;
salaries of, 152-153 ; criti-
cism of , 153 seq. ; Brougham

328 INDEX TO NAMES AND SUBJECTS

on, 154 seq. ; Lord John
Russell on, 154 ; Lord
Bulkeley on, 155 ; Lord
Cawdor on, 155 ; no pen-
sions for, 151-158 ; in-
feriority of, 158 ; eminent
English lawyers as, 158 ;
one fourth of, promoted to
High Court Bench, 158.
Judicial writs, 145 ; capias,

151-

Juries, refuse to convict, 60.

Justices of the Peace, first
appointed in Wales, 78 seq. ;
number limited to eight for
each shire. 79 ; limitation
removed, 1693, 79 ; powers
of 80, 81 ; no property
qualification required in
Wales, 82.

Kensington, Lord, on equitable
jurisdiction of Great Ses-
sions, 137 ; on Welsh attor-
neys, 163.

Kerton, Thomas, Warden of
English Hospital at Rome,
208.

Kyffin, Morus, translator of
Jewel's Defence of the Church
of England, 298 ; indignant
with cleric who was against
translating the Bible into
Welsh, 298.

Land laws, English, introduced
into Wales, 114; effect of,
114-115.

Leander, Father, see Father
John Jones.

Lecky, Scottish Act of Union,
7. 22-23.

Lee, Bishop Rowland, Presi-
dent of the Council 1534-
I 543)» II. J 3. 4 1 .' character,
51 seq. ; treatment of

" Welshery," 32 n ; vigorous
administration, 53 seq. ; in
pulpit for first time, 53 ;
passed death penalty, 53 ;
punishes juries for refusing
to convict, 60-61 ; inspires
coercive legislation, 62 seq. ;
distrust of Welshmen as
Justices of the Peace, 66 ;
against Act of Union, 72 ;
death, 73-74 ; buried at
St. Chad's, Shrewsbury, 74 ;
character and value of his
work, 74-7.5.

Lewis, David, alias Baker,
Jesuit, 223.

Lewis, Dr. Owen, Canon of
Cambrai, Archdeacon of
Hainault, and Bishop of
Cassano (Naples) ; birth and
education, 203-204 ; helps
Allen to start Douay College,
203 ; goes to Rome, 206 ;
friendship with St. Carlo
Borromeo and Dr. Griffith
Roberts, 206 ; with Dr.
Morris, 214 ; talks Latin
to Anthony Munday, 215 ;
incensed against English and
Jesuits, 215 ; letters to Allen
about dissensions in Rome,
215 ; relations with his
nephew, Hugh Griffith, 217 ;
intervenes in dispute between
English and Welsh students
at Rome, 219 ; retires to
Milan, 220 ; Parsons's esti-
mate, 233 n ; relations with
Cardinal Allen, 234 ; opposes
Jesuits, 234 n ; promoted
Bishop of Cassano, 235 ;
lives in Milan till Borromeo 's
death in 1594, 235 ; Cardi-
nal Sega's estimate of, 238 ;
introduces Dr. W. Gifford
into Borromeo's household,

INDEX TO NAMES AND SUBJECTS 329

238 ; said to be hostile to
Jesuits, 239-240 ; aspires
to Cardinalate, 242 ; one
of executors to Cardinal
Allen's will, 241 n ; Parsons
opposes him, 242 n ; stu-
dents at Rome implore him
to destroy Jesuit monopoly
in education, 242 ; offered
Cardinal's hat, but dies
before formally elected, 242.

Leycester, Mr. Justice, on
equitable jurisdiction of
Court of Great Sessions, 138.

Lloyd, Bishop, of St. Asaph
(afterwards of Worcester and
London), tries to reconcile
Rev. Philip Henry to the
Established Church, 272.

Llwyd, Morgan, o Wynedd,
in receipt of State pay, 171 ;
author of second original
prose work printed in Welsh,
306.

Lordships, Marcher, 29, 44 seq.,
57 ; some joined to English
shires, 69 ; some to Welsh
shires, 70 ; rights and privi-
leges swept away, 71.

Lougher, Watkyn, 61.

Ludlow, 43, 49, 50 ; usual
place of meeting for Council,
90 ; Churchyard's descrip-
tion, 90 ; historical events
at, 90 seq. ; one of a chain
of sixteen castles to guard
the Welsh March, 91.

Macaulay, Lord, English in
India, 1 ; contrast between
Roman and Anglican Church
in dealing with enthusiasts,
265-266.

Macclesfield, Earl of, last
President of the Council,
appointed 1689, 102.

Magor, five malefactors living
safely at, 56.

Mansfield, Sir James, on num-
ber of equity cases in
Chester, 134.

Mansfield, Lord, first to adopt
indebitatus assumpsit, 147 ;
defends certiorari to remove
Welsh cases to England in
certain events, 170.

Mari Lwyd, " Holy Mary,"
mystery play, 196.

Marshal of Court of Great
Sessions, appointed by the
Judge, 159.

Mary, Princess, afterwards
Queen, at Ludlow, 48, 92.

Mathew, George, 59.

Matthews, Henry, Warden of
the English Hospital at
Rome, 208.

Meyer, Arnold Oskar, England
and the Catholic Church
under Queen Elizabeth, cited
in notes, 209, 213, 221, 225,
230.

Middleton, Sir Thomas, de-
frayed part of expense of
printing the " little Bible "
in 1630, 261.

Milton, John, witnesses pro-
duction of Comus at Ludlow,
94 ; compliment to Welsh
nation, 94-95.

Monasteries, the Welsh, 198 ;
bards against dissolution of,
198 n ; education in, 199 ;
dispensing charity, 199 ; as
landlords, 199 ; Glasynys
on, 199 n.

Monmouthshire, always re-
garded by Welshmen as a
Welsh county, 76 n ; Catho-
licism in, 112.

More, Sir Thomas, advice to
Cromwell, 47.

33o INDEX TO NAMES AND SUBJECTS

Morgan, Sir Henry, the Bucca-
neer, 85.
Morgan, Thomas, conspirator,
228 ; hostility to Spain and
Jesuits, 228-229 ; in Bastile,
235 ; imprisoned by Duke of
Parma in Flanders, 235 ;
retires to Rome to house of
Owen Lewis, 235.
Morgan, Roger, abducts widow,

60.
Morgan, William, Jesuit, 223.
Morgan, Bishop William, 24 ;
publishes in 1588 Welsh
Edition of the Bible, 260 ;
its merits, 261 ; Bishop
Parry's attempt to amend
it, 261 n.
Morus, Huw, bewails dis-
appearance of merry old
days, 273 n ; ridicules
Roundhead soldiers in pul-
pits, 273 n ; satirises Puri-
tan preachers, 284 n.
Morris, Lewis, sets up printing

press at Holyhead, 310.
Mortimer, Hugh, imprisoned at

Ludlow, 91.
Mortimers, the, 34 seq.
Mortimer, Roger, Earl of
March, brings Edward III.
to Ludlow, 91.
Mortimer, Roger, marries

Philippa of Clarence, 91.
Mortimer, Edmund. fights

battle of Pilleth, 91.
Munday, Anthony, in racial
dissensions at Rome, 210
seq. ; career of, 214 n ; de-
nounced by Parsons, 214 n ;
welcomed by Dr. Griffith
Roberts at Milan, 231.
Mush, Father, one of the
discontented English stu-

dents
216 n.

at Rome, 215,

Myles.. Rev. John, founder of
first Baptist Church at II-
ston, 271 ; in receipt of
tithe, 271 ; emigrates to
Swansea, Massachusetts, at
Restoration, 271.

Myrddin Fardd, an example of
Welsh democratic culture,
313-

Newfoundland, Welshmen help

to colonise, 85.
Nicholas, Dr., Annals of Wales,

131-

Nonconformity, in Wales, 257
seq. ; first dissenting cause
in 1639, 257 n ; factions
among dissenters after 1689,
274-5 .' story of, a romance,
284 ; its difficulties, 285 ;
its influence on national life
and character, 286 seq.

Northampton, Earl of, Presi-
dent of the Council (1617-
1631), 101.

Owen, George, Government of
Wales, 12, 2.5-26, 32, 34, 41,
46, 78, 79 ; description
of the Council of the
Marches, 77 ; on number of
attorneys at Ludlow, 163;
reply to John Penry's com-
plaint, 263 n ; a motion to
abolish Council of the Mar-
ches, 121.

Owen, Dr. Henry, English
Law in Wales and the
Marches, 43.

Owen, Lewis, the spy, 240-241 ;
on difference between Jesuits
and Benedictines, 251-252.

Parliament, Welsh M.P.'s paid,
71 ; representation of Wales,
71, 83 seq. ; Welsh members

INDEX TO NAMES AND SUBJECTS 331

for and against Charles I.,
84 n.

Parry, Dr., Jesuit, 230 11.

Parry, Bishop, translator of
Authorised Welsh Version of
the Bible, 261 ; some de-
fects, 261 n.

Parsons, Robert, Jesuit, on
Welsh loyalty to the old
faith, 196 n ; estimate of
Dr. Morris, 210 n ; on racial
dissensions at Rome, 212 n ;
sent as missionary with
Campion to England, 232 ;
attempts to monopolise for
Jesuits the training of
English missionaries, 233 ;
supports Allen for the Car-
dinalate, 233 ; book to vindi-
cate Philip of Spain's title
to the English throne, 236 ;
Gifford's comment on Par-
sons's Book, 239 ; on effect
of the racial dissensions at
Rome, 240 ; hostility to
Welshmen, 240 ; opposes
Owen Lewis for the Car-
dinalate, 242 n ; Rector for
second time of the English
College at Rome, 243 ; death
in 1 610, 243 ; advises ap-
pointment of Arch-priest in
England, 243 seq.
Pembroke, Mary (Sidney),
Countess of, at Ludlow,
93 ; Ben Jonson's epitaph,

93-

Pembroke, first Earl of Pem-
broke, see Sir William Her-
bert.

Pembroke, second Earl of
Pembroke, President of the
Council (1586- 1 602), roo ;
Council begins to lose repu-
tation, 100.

Pembrokeshire, Catholicism

in, no; see also George

Owen.
Penarth, pirates land at, 108.
Pennant, Tour in Wales, 52,

58-

Penry, John, Nonconformist
and martyr, on Welsh towns,
32 ; bred a Catholic, 197 ;
complains of " dumb mini-
sters," 263 ; George Owen's
reply, 263 n ; anxious for
commission from Parliament,
265 ; became a separatist on
return from Scotland, 267.

Peshale, Richard de, 33.

Petition, for Act of 1542,

75-

Phillips, Thomas, complaint
against Council of the Mar-
ches, 50.

Phillips, Fabian, member of
the Council, employed by
Whitgift to smell out recu-
sants, no; appreciation of
his services b}' Whitgift, 1 10-
iii ; Gerard's description
of, 118.

Phillips, Dr. Morgan, Pre-
centor of St. David's, sup-
ported Douay College, 202-
204.

Phipson, an English pirate, at
Haverfordwest, 107.

Piracy, in Bristol Channel, 106-
108.

Pole, Sir Richard, descent
from Princes of Powys, 45 ;
member of Prince Arthur's
Council, 45.

Population of Wales in 15 15,

55-
Porte, Mr. Justice, 60, 73.
Powell, Dr. David, Vicar of

Ruabon, author of History

of Cambria, n-12, 15, 42-43,

45-

332 INDEX TO NAMES AND SUBJECTS

Powell, of Oswestry, member
of the Council, Gerard's de-
scription of, 1 1 8.

Powell, Rev. Vavasour, scar-
city of religious teaching in
Wales, 264 ; preparing for
Church ministry when con-
verted by Cradock, 271 ;
death in Fleet Prison, 271.

President of the Council, Lord
Lieutenant of Welsh coun-
ties, 79.

Press, the printing, spread of,
in the eighteenth century,
309 ; publication of Welsh
literature widely diffused,
310.

Price, Sir John, of Brecon,
his birth and career, 16-17 •"
translates portion of Scrip-
tures, 260.

Price, Ellis, Y doctor Coch,
Gerard's description, 117;
William Llyn, 118.

Pritchard, Vicar, of Llando-
very, contrasts education in
Wales and England, 262 ;
few Welshmen able to read
the Bible, 263.

Procedure, comparison of
Welsh and English procedure
in 1830, 185 seq., 192 seq.

Prothonotary, or prenotary,
functions of, 159.

Prys, Archdeacon, helps Bishop
Morgan to translate Bible,
260 ; publishes rhymed
Welsh version of the Psalms,
261.

Pulrath v. Griffiths, case on
equitable jurisdiction of
Great Sessions, 134.

Recusancy, reluctance of Jus-
tices of Assize and of the
Peace to interfere with

Catholic priests, no, 111 ;
in Carmarthenshire and
Pembrokeshire, in- 112 ;
prevalent in 1609, 112 ;
priest rescued in Monmouth,
112. See also Reformation.

Red Dragon, one of Henry
VII. 's banners, 38.

Rees, Dr. Thomas, estimate of
numerical strength of Puri-
tans during Commonwealth,
273-274; increase in number
of Nonconformists after
1689, 274 ; estimate of
numerical strength of dissent
in nineteenth century, 285 n.

Reformation, the, 195 seq. ;
not welcomed in Wales, 195 ;
Chapuys on Wales's hostility
to, 195 ; social and economi-
cal effect of, 199-200.

Rhys ap Griffith, grandson of
Sir Rhys ap Thomas, not
appointed to grandfather's
offices, 48 ; affray at Car-
marthen, 50 ; tried by Star
Chamber, 50.

Rhys ap Thomas, Sir, K. G.,
death of, 20, 28 ; espoused
cause of Henry Tudor, 36 ;
most powerful man in Wales,

4i. 47-

Rhys, Sion Dafydd, on com-
parative wealth of Welsh
literature, 296 ; his scorn of
Anglicised Welshmen, 298.

Roberts, John, Benedictine
monk and martjT, birth and
education, 245 ; joins Furni-
vall's Inn, 246 ; converted
by Jesuits in Paris, 247 ;
enters Jesuit College at
Valladolid, 247 ; leaves
Jesuits and joins O.S.B. at
Valladolid, 247 ; share in
revival of O.S.B. in England,

INDEX TO NAMES AND SUBJECTS 333

249 ; founds St. Gregory's
College at Douay, 250 ;
arrested and hanged in 1610,
255 ; remains taken to
Douay, 256 n.

Roberts, Dr. Griffith, of Milan,
on Welsh practice of dedi-
cating parish churches to
native saints, 198 ; on de-
generation of Catholicism in
Wales, 201 ; friendship with
Owen Lewis, 206 ; chaplain
to St. Carlo Borromeo, 206 ;
Munday's account of his
conversation and opinions,
231 ; letter in 1596 to
Rhosier Smith, 231 ; Wales
sinking into paganism, 259 ;
ridicules Anglicised Welsh-
men, 259.

Rome, English College at, 206
sec/. ; dissensions between
Welsh and English students,
210 seq. ; curriculum at,
209 n ; revenue of, 209 n ;
English students on causes
of dissension at, 211 seq. ;
Parsons on dissensions, 2 1 2 n ;
effect of dissensions, 221
seq.

Ross, John, printer, Carmar-
then, 310.

Rowlands, Rev. Daniel, helps
to start Methodist revival,

275 ; Howel Harries 's esti-
mate of his preaching powers,

276 ; never disagreed in
doctrine with Established
Church, 278-279 ; his elo-
quence, 285.

Russell, Lord, John, on Welsh
Judges, 154-155.

Salesbury, Sir John, Justice
of the Great Sessions ;
William Llyn's elegy ex-

tolling his knowledge of
Welsh, 296.

Salesbury, William, translates
portion of Bible, 260 ; is
given patent for printing of
Welsh Bible for seven years,
260 ; attitude towards
Welsh, 297.

Sampson, Bishop of Lichfield,
President of the Council, 96.

Scotland, effect on, of Act of
Union with England, 22-23.

Scudamore, John, Sheriff of
Herefordshire, 66.

Secondary, functions of, at
Great Sessions, 159.

Seville, Jesuit College founded

^ at, 234.

Sheriffs, how appointed in
Wales, 77 ; duties of, 77 ;
wrongly setting up Hundred
Courts, 78 ; relations with
Lord Bridgewater, 78 ; first
appointed by StaluLum
Walliae, 160 ; provisions of
Act of 1542 as to, 160 ;
functions of, 160 ; nomi-
nated by President and
afterwards by Justices of
Great Sessions, 160 ; ex-
empted from appearance in
Court of Exchequer, 160.

Shires, division of Wales into,

7°. 73-

Sidney, Sir Henry, President
of the Council (1558-1586),
tribute to Wales, 11 ; at
Ludlow, "92 ; heart interred
at Ludlow, 92 ; description
of office, 95-96 ; tenure of
office, 98 seq. ; religious
tolerance, 99 ; weeds out
abuses, 99.

Sidney, Sir Philip, at Shrews-
bury School, 192 ; at Lud-
low, 93 ; godson of Philip

334 INDEX TO NAMES AND SUBJECTS

of Spain, 93 ; death and

character, 93.
Skeel, Miss, author of The

Council of the Marches in

Wales, 43 ; list of officials,

ii6m; procedure of, 119-

120.
Smith, Rhosier, 206.
Smyth, Bishop William, first

President of the Council,

44 seq.
Solicitor-General, mentioned in

Act of 1542, but not in Act of

1830, 161.
Stanley, Lord, Henry VII. 's

stepfather, 37.
Stanley, Sir William, desertion

from Richard III., 37.
Stephen, Mr. Justice, on Lords

Marcher, 33.
St. Omer, Jesuit College,

founded, 234.
Stradling, Robert, 60.
Sulyard, Sir William, 73.

Taylor, Edward, Warden of
English Hospital at Rome,
208.

Temple, Christopher, on equity
cases at Chester, 134-138 ;
on cheapness of Welsh pro-
cedure, 149.

Thomas, Rev. Oliver, supposed
author of Carwr y Cymry
(1631), 263 n ; growth of
paganism in Wales, 263.

Thomas, Nicholas, printer,
Carmarthen, 310.

Tickinhill Manor, description
of, 89 ; Prince Arthur at.
89 ; falls into disrepair,
89.

Torture, Whitgift empowered
to use, no.

Trial by jury, extended to
Wales, 83.

Valladolid, Jesuit College
founded at, 234.

Vaughan, Chief Justice,
treatise on Welsh jurisdic-
tion, 166 ; condemns at-
tempt of English Courts to
steal Welsh jurisdiction, 166.

Vaughan, Dean, of Llandaff,
on the necessity for pre-
serving Welsh, 316.

Vaughan, Rice, author of
Practica Walliae, 1 31-132 ;
on Concessit solvere, 146-147.

Vaughan, Rowland, of Caergai,
contrast between education
in England and in Wales,
262.

Vaughan, William, of Tor-
coed, helps to colonise New-
foundland, 85.

Vescie or Voysey, Bishop,
President of the Council, 46.

Wales, government of, after
Conquest, 29 seq. ; popula-
tion of, in 1515, 55 n.

Wars of the Roses, a March
quarrel, 35.

Warwick, Earl of, the King-
maker, 34.

Watson, Sir William, Wales
a Greeting, 86.

Welsh, excluded from official
use, 70, 129 ; fortunes of,
289 ; influence of Latin,
289-291 ; of Anglo-Saxon,
291-292 ; of the Northern
Britons under Cunedda, 291 ;
of French, 292-293 ; of
English, 293-295 ; during
Wars of the Roses, 295 ; effect
of Act of Union on, 295 ;
dissolution of monasteries
leading to dispersal of Welsh
MSS., 296 ; gentry forget-
ting, 296 ; William Sales-

INDEX TO NAMES AND SUBJECTS 335

bury's attitude, 297 ; views
of Dr. Griffith Roberts,

298 ; of Dr. Sion Dafydd
Rhys, 298 ; of Morus Ryffin,

299 ; of Dr. Johnson, 299 ;
of Stephen Hughes, 299,
301 ; of Griffith Jones,
Llanddowror, 300 ; of
Thomas Charles, 300 ; de-
terioration after Reforma-
tion, 301-302 ; not taught
in Elizabethan grammar
schools, 302 ; Vicar Pritch-
ard's rhymes as evidence
of deterioration of, 303 ;
Stephen Hughes's Welsh
better than Vicar Pritchard's
304 ; Pantycelyn's Welsh
better than Stephen
Hughes's, 304 ; little origi-
nal Welsh prose under
Tudors, 304 ; little Welsh
poetry published, 305 ; the
Glamorgan poets, 305 ; few
Welsh books published (1546-
1644), 3°6 '> purification of
language, 307 ; small cir-
culation of Welsh Bibles,

307 ; great increase during
and after Commonwealth,
308; Moses Williams's work,

308 ; influence of circulat-
ing schools, 309 ; the print-
ing press in Wales, 309 seq. ;
no monopoly in printing
Welsh books for any town,
310 ; all sects and parties
contribute to Welsh litera-
ture, 311; Cymmrodorion
and Cymreigyddion Societies,
312 ; influence of Sunday
Schools, 313 ; the Welsh
Republic of letters, 313 ;
no Welsh professional men
of letters, 314 ; Sir John
Williams's ragged company

of Welsh books, 315 ; work
of Dr. Gwenogvryn Evans,
Sir John Rhys, and Sir J.
Morris Jones, 316-317 ; the
young school of Welsh poets,
and dramatists, 317 11 ',
Principal T. C. Edwards on
preservation of, 317-318.

Whitgift, Bishop of Worcester,
afterwards Archbishop of
Canterbury, appointed Vice-
President of the Council,
109 ; activity against
Catholics, 109 ; inquires into
case of John Edwards of
Chirk, 109.

William I., the Conqueror,
treatment of Saxons, 2.

Williams, Rev. David, of Wat-
ford, co-operates with Howell
Harries, 275.

Williams, Lord, of Thame,
kinsman of Richard Williams
alias Cromwell, 97 ; career,
98 ; appointed President of
the Council, 98 ; dies at
Ludlow, 98.

Williams, Rev. Moses, Vicar of
Devynock, publishes edi-
tions of W r elsh Bible in 171 7
and 1727, 308.

Williams, Rev. Peter, joins
Methodists, 277 ; expelled
for heresy, 279.

Williams, Dr. Rowland, on the
neglect of Welsh, 318 n.

Williams, Rev. William, of
Pantycelyn, early life and
conversion, 276 ; ordained
curate to Rev. Theophilus
Evans at Llanwrtyd, 277;
an evangelical Churchman,
278 ; poetry of, 285.

Williams, Rev. William, o'r
Wern, carpenter, 284 ; in-
spired philosopher, 285.

336 INDEX TO NAMES AND SUBJECTS

Wisbeach, dissensions among
Catholic prisoners at, 244 ;
Welshmen side with secular
priests, 244.

Worthington, Dr., succeeds
Dr. Barratt at Douay, 234.

Writ, judicial, 145 ; original,
145 ; capias, 150 seq.

Wroth, Rev. William, of Llan-
vaches, starts first Indepen-
dent cause in Wales, 113,
257 n ; reluctance to leave
Church of England, 268.

Wyatt, John, on equitable
jurisdiction of Great Ses-
sions, 132.

Wynn, Sir John, History of the
Gwydir Family, 4, 5, 41.

Wynn, Elis, author of Y Bardd
Cwsg, 309.

York, Richard Duke of, 35 ;
builds Tickinhill Manor, 89 ;
gathers his forces against
Lancastrians at Ludlow, 92.

Zouche, Lord, of Harring-
worth, President of the
Council (1602-1607), 100 ;
discourtesy in Scotland and
at Ludlow, 100 ; Ben Jon-
son's distich, 101.

Glasgow: printed at the university press by Robert maclehose and co. ltd.

;

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