Cylchgronau Cymru

"OLD BRECKNOCK CHIPS." A Column of Antiquarian Chit-Chat relating to the County of Brecknock. NOTES, QUERIES, AND REPLIES.'on Subjects inter¬ esting to Breconshire, must be addressedjto EDITOR, Bbecon County Times, Brecon. Real names and addresses must be given in confidence, and MSS. must be written legibly, on one side of the paper only. OCTOBEE 22nd, 1886. NOTES. OLD NOEMAN FAMILIES — THE HAVAEDS.—It is commonly, I believe, treated as an accepted fact that this family is, as originally stated in the " List of Sheriffs of Brecknockshire " reprinted from the Cambrian Journal, and annotated by the late Mr Ord, of Tenby, and Joseph Joseph, Esq., " said to have derived its name by abbreviation from Havre de Grace, which was the place in Normandy whence they came originally into this country." This cannot be so, as Havre was not in existence for more than four hundred years after they came over, the town not having been found¬ ed until early in the 16th century. Possibly the name may be a corruption from that of " de Harfleur," a port of embarkation and debarcation in full activity at the time of the Norman invasion of England in the 11th century, and only distant four miles from the sandy spit upon which the^town ^and port of Havre afterwards arose. M. BISHOP BULL, OF BEECKNOCK.— In Leslie Stephen's Dictionary of National Biography (vol. viii.—Browne-Burthogee) appears a well-written memoir of this Bishop of St. David's. We are told Bishop Bull never took a degree, and was admitted D.D. at Oxford without the payment of the usual fees, and was, it seems, promoted to the See of St. David's in 1704-5. "His age and infirmities prevented him being an active prelate. He once formed a plan of making a tour of his diocese, but a severe illness detained him at Brecknock, where he resided, and his son-in-law, Mr (afterwards Archdea¬ con) Stephens and Mr Powell went as his commissioners to deliver his charge. Hearne writes in his diary under date 7th February, 1706-7, that ' when the Bill for the security of the Church of England was read . . . Dr. Bull sate in the lobby of the House of Lords all the while smoking his Pipe.' He held the see only four years, during the whole of which time he was obviously failing. He died 17th February, 1709-10, and was buried at Brecknock, where his widow spent the brief remainder of her days." The Editor. JAMES HOWEL, ESQ.—Born at Cefrr bryn, Llangammarch, one of whose sisters married a Penry, and whose brother Thomas was made Bishop of Bristol, was one of the Clerks of his late Majesty's (James I.) Most Honourable Privy Council, and was a very clever man, writing many entertaining books, among the number being almost the first book l<ir of foreign travels. I have before me the title of one of his books, viz., Lustra Ludovici, or the Life of the late Victorious King of France, Lewis the XIII. (and of his Cardinal de Eichelieu,) 1646, fnlio" Turning to my copy of his Epistolae Ho-Elianae, at p. 499 I find the following confirmation of the above work being his :— " Whereas your Lordship writes for my Lustra Ludovici, or the history of the last French king and his Cardinal, I shall ere long serve your lordship with one of a.new edition, and with some enlargements." The Editor. THE AUBEEYS OF BEECKNOCK.— We have received the following valued com¬ munication from " S.E.C.," of Lower Leigh, Street, Somerset, for insertion in this column :— In connection with my inquiry in a former letter concerning the Aubrey family, I think your readers may be interested by the following entry, which I quite unexpectedly came upon a few days ago, when examining the early records of the Society of Friends (commonly called Quakers) in this neigh¬ bourhood. It forms the principal minute of the proceedings of a "monthly meeting" held at the village adjoining the one from which I write, under date of the " 30th of 6th mo. [June] 1693," in the house of a member of the Society, and is as follows :— "Richard Awbrey, of Laneleu, in the County of Brecknock, gent , proposed an intention of marriage with Mary Watts, daughter of Philip Watts, of Grenton, late of Paulet. Thomas Powell, her father-in-law—[can this be a slip for orother-in* law]—and Edward BHuman testifies her consent to the said proposal, and it is referred to Ann Gundry and Mary Coog and Edith Ames, or any two of them, to enquire into the clearness and consent of parents of ye said Mary Watts, and it is left to Richard Awbrey to produce a certificate from friends of the meeting to which he belongs of his clearness, conversation, and parents' consent ; return to be made to this meeting and then further considered." At the ensuing monthly meeting, held in the village from which I write, on the "27th of 2nd mo." [February] favourable 'returns were made concern¬ ing Mary Watts, and with regard to Richard Awbrey it stands recorded that the certificate from his meeting and one also from hid father "hath satisfied friends of this meeting on his part, and this meeting see noe cause of hindrance of their proceed¬ ing in marriage each with the other: but leave them to accomplish it according to good order among friends."—as doubtless they did.* It would much interest some of us in these parts to learn—(1) If anything further is known in the bridegroom's county of the pair ? (2) Whether the Llanelieu family is now extinct P (3) Whether the manor houses, or any part of them, pertaining to the Llan¬ elieu, and the Abercynrig and Slough, Awbrey estates, are still in existence? In George Foxs Journal, the very tumultuous and hostile greeting he received from the people of the town of Breck¬ nock, in 1657, stands recorded. The uproar lasted for two hours before the inn where he and his com¬ panions had put up, reminding him, he remarks, of the handicraftsmen of Diana of the Ephesians. And he says the magistrates, instead of restraining the mob, '' set them on to shout again when they had given over." Nevertheless, it appears that George Fox made converts among gentle and (doubtless) simple. At a meeting (apparently open-air) in the county of Radnor the crowd was so great that Morgan Watkins told him " the people lie like a Leaguer" (?) "and the gentry of the county is come in." Many sat on horseback the multitude was so great, and "no opposition was made by any." It would be interesting to know whether any members of the Society now remain in Brecon ? —and whether it was from a meeting in that town, or elsewhere, that Richard Awbrey received his certificate? S. E. C. * Probably this was the Richard Awbrey, heir to the Llanely w estate mentioned by Jones.and said by him to have died in 1719.