Cylchgronau Cymru

Chwiliwch trwy dros 450 o deitlau a 1.2 miliwn o dudalennau

Lead Mining at Esgair y Mwyn in the time of Lewis Morris. (1752-55). (By OSWALD BEYNON, B.A., University College of Wales, Aberystwyth.) ORIGINALLY all the lands in Wales belonged to the Principality of Wales, but on its conquest by Edward the First of England became attached to the Crown, and throughout the Tudor Period were managed by the Earls of Pembroke acting as Crown Stewards. However, conflicts arose between the landowners and the Crown concerning the ownership of unenclosed wastes. Early on in the history of these conflicts the official champion of the Crown Rights was none other than the bard and antiquary, Lewis Morris, (Llewelyn Ddu o Fon)."1 The Cardiganshire Manors were alienated by the Commonwealth in 1649, and, as a natural sequence to the restoration, were reunited to the Crown. It was through Thomas Corbett's (Secretary of the Admiralty) interest that Lewis Morris was commissioned in 1741 to complete the survey of St. George's Channel which had been left unfinished in 1737. When the stewardship of the Crown Manors was granted to William Corbett in 1746, Lewis Morris was appointed deputy steward, then, and for some years after also holding the office of Collector of the Customs at Aberdovey. The new office necessitated his settling in the district, His brother William, in a letter to Richard (dated 10th May, 1746, and preserved at the British Museum), conveys the news that Lewis had recently pur- chased part of an estate situated in such a place that I would not have accepted it gratis to live upon it. No doubt he has some inducement, mwyn neu rywbeth "-minerals or something. This probably referred to Galltfadog, a farm some five miles out of Aberystwyth. Lewis was not long before taking up residence there, for he dates a letter to Richard from Galltfadog on 31 July, 1747, in which he says I expect Mr. Corbett and some great men here daily, and I am very busy in drawing maps, accounts, etc."2 The advent of Lewis Morris into Cardiganshire was coincident with a considerable revival of activity in the country. In 1747 he set some miners to open an old drowned work known as Nant y Creiau in Llanbadarn Fawr. The Crown agreed to grant a lease of it to John Vaughan, a London Merchant, who assigned his rights to Owen Meyrick. In September 1751, Powell of Nanteos, per- ceiving that it was not being worked by the Crown, set some miners