Llantwit Major Local History Society

NAMES ASSOCIATED WITH LLANTWIT MAJOR

ANDREWS. The Andrews family kept the Post Office in Wesley Street, Llantwit Major from around 1870. The first Post Master was William Andrews. His son, Hughie Andrews, took over from him and remained as Post Master until 1941.Hughie Andrews was a sportsman, historian and photographer who recorded life in Llantwit Major in his diaries and by his photography. He has therefore provided a valuable archive of the town from the 1920s to the 1950s. [See Vols 1-7]	BASSETT. The family descended from the Bassetts of Beaupre. One Llantwit branch descended from Christopher, who lived at Great House, Siggingstone. He married Mary Hooper who inherited Boverton House from her uncle in 1815. This became the family home for their six children. The house was sold after 1892. Until then, the spinster sisters, Mary and Joan, called “The Miss Bassetts”, lived there and were later joined by their widowed sister Mrs. Pemberton. The solicitor, Elias Bassett, was their father’s brother. He lived at Ivy or Court House, High St. He gave the land in Methodist Lane to build Tabernacle Chapel.
CRAWSHAY. This branch of the ironmaster’s family were tenants at Dimlands , a large house on the St. Donats Road. Tudor Crawshay and his wife, Mary, from Kew, were there from 1900 to 1921. He became deputy Lieutenant of Glamorgan, J.P. and was vicar’s warden of St. Illtud’s Church. Their son Mervyn was killed in WW1 but their other son, Owen, married and lived in Tresillian House. He had one daughter Sylvia. [See Vol.5]
	DANIEL. Professor Glyn E. Daniel of Cambridge University was also a TV personality in the 1950s as chairman of the quiz show ‘Animal,Vegetable or Mineral.’ He was educated at Llantwit Major where his father was the headmaster of the elementary school. For his secondary education Glyn went to Barry County School for Boys and onto Cambridge in 1923 where he read Archaeology and Anthropology. He became a Fellow of St. John’s College and Disney Professor of Archaeology.[See Vol 3]
DAVIES. Professor William H. Davies was Professor of Classics at Aberystwyth U. C. W. from 1947-1974.He was educated at Llantwit Major elementary school, Barry Boys Grammar School and University College Cardiff. He furthered his studies at Rome and Harvard and was very interested in the local archaeological sites at Caer Mead and the Monastery Field. Unfortunately ill health prevented him developing these interests on his retirement.[See Vol. 4]
DEERE. The Deere family is described as ‘lesser landed gentry’. They are recorded in the area throughout the 16th century and several named wills are available. One branch lived at Six Wells Farm, an Elizabethan building destroyed in 1940 to make way for Llandow Airfield.[See Vol 6]
HOPKIN. Daniel Hopkin came from a humble family in Llantwit Major where his father had been a farm labourer but died in 1893 when Daniel was seven. Daniel was encouraged in the elementary school and later went to Carmarthen College, then to Cambridge to read law. He became a Labour MP for Carmarthen, then in 1941 he became a Metropolitan Magistrate, eventually presiding at Marlborough Street Court. He died in 1951.[See Vol.1]
MABON, was the bardic name of William Abraham (1842-1922). Born in Cwmafan, he worked in collieries from the age of ten, but gained a reputation as a skilled negotiator with the mine owners. He became agent for the Cambrian Miners Association, and later treasurer for the Miners Federation of Great Britain, the most influential miner’s leader of his time. From 1885 to 1910 he was MP for the Rhondda, first for the Liberals, then for Labour. He had a holiday home in Llantwit Major at Bryn Illtyd, later the house where Glyn Daniel was brought up.
	NICHOLL. The family was first resident at Ty Mawr, High St. where John Nicholl lived until 1599. His son and heir took up residence at another Llantwit property, The Ham. He was called Illtyd after the founding Saint of Llantwit Major. This became a given name for the Nicholls through succeeding generations. The family sons followed the professions, the law, the Church, medicine. The Sheriff of Glamorgan in 1746 was Whitlock Nicholl who had 14 children. The family also had property in Monmouthshire near Tredunnock, and at Usk, which came to the family when George Nicholl married Eleanor Bond. The last of the Nicholls at the Ham was Mary Nicholl who died in 1905, and the last at Llanmaes, another Nicholl home, was Illtyd Bond Nicholl who died in 1941. [See Vol.7]
NICHOLL-CARNE. The Carne family seat was at Nash Manor. They owned large areas of land which in 1798 were inherited by Eleanor Carne of Nash, who married Thomas Markham of Cheltenham from whom there was no heir. The lands, in1842,went to Elizabeth Carne , a cousin, who married the Rev. Robert Nicholl, one of the children of Whitlock. By a marriage agreement, the Carne family name was linked with that of Nicholls. They lived at Dimlands.
PORTREY. This name was probably derived from the ancient position of the Portreeve who looked after the comings and goings of a town in charge of tolls and markets. The Portreys of Boverton were the land agents of the Seys family of Boverton Place and lived at Tile House. As an agent, Christopher Portrey amassed his own fortune and his family members married other gentlemen farmers. There are several wills available e.g. Christopher Portrey, 1603. He was Constable of Llantwit Major at the time of ‘the great affray’ in the streets in 1597. there are also the wills of Rees Portrey and Ann Portrey. [See Vol.7]
PRICE. This name relates to several Price families in the area. Jane Price of Cwrt Carnau, Penllegaer, married Rev. Evan Seys and gave birth to the last of the Boverton Seys, Jane, b.1750, who married Robert Jones of Fonmon. Her brother, Thomas bought Dyffryn St. Nicholas. Benjamin Price of Flanders Farm was a wealthy currier here in the nineteenth century. The Price family of The Hayes was headed by Richard Price who made his fortune as a builder and who built this large house near the Town Hall in 1889. He married Jane Andrews and here they brought up six children. One of the most notable was Andrew Price who served in South Africa early in the 18th century. [See Vol.2]
RAGLAN. In the 15th century Robert Raglan ,of the Monmouthshire Herbert family, was given lands around Llantwit Major for having fought at Agincourt. John Raglan, the grandson of Robert settled here and the family became patrons of the bards and of the Church and constructed several of the outstanding buildings in the town.
REDWOOD. This was a Quaker family. In 1806 the land they owned in Boverton was given by Thomas Redwood for building a chapel known as Bethesda’r Fro. His son Charles wrote books on local folklore and entertained the writer Thomas Carlyle at Orchard House, Boverton ,where he lived until 1855.His daughter, Margaret, married Charles Vachell, Mayor of Cardiff. The Vachell family had taken his other son, Theophilus, as an apprentice chemist and he became Professor of Chemistry at the School of the Pharmaceutical Society, London, in 1842, and first President of the Society of Public Analysts. He inherited Orchard House and died there in 1892. His son ,Thomas, was knighted for his work on explosives. [See Vol. 3]
SEYS This family name was brought to Boverton around 1560 by Roger Seys of Cowbridge who married Elizabeth Voss. She inherited Boverton land on which they built a large mansion, Boverton Place. Roger was a lawyer becoming Attorney General for the Principality of Wales under Elizabeth I. He died in 1600 and there is a wall plaque to his memory in St. Illtud’s Church. His descendants were also lawyers, the most notable of whom was Evan Seys, 1604-1685 who was MP for Glamorgan and later for Gloucester. He survived the political situations under Charles I, Oliver Cromwell, Richard Cromwell and Charles II. Among his direct descendents is Ada Augusta Lovelace, the daughter of Lord Byron, and collaborator with Babbage on developing the ideas behind computers. The Seys properties at Boverton were transferred in 1774 to Robert Jones of Fonmon who had married the heiress to Boverton, Jane Seys .She died without producing an heir and so the property reverted to him. [See Vol.2]
TREVELYAN. Marie Trevelyan was the pen name of Emma Thomas. She became a well known writer by collecting and recording the folklore and the narrated historical accounts of Llantwit Major. In 1910 she published her book “Llantwit Major. Its history and antiquities.” She lived in Wine Street with her father, Illtud Thomas, a sculptor. She lived for a time in London and she married a doctor names Paslieu. They had one daughter who spent much time in hospital at Penyfai. The candlesticks in St. Illtud’s Church are dedicated to her memory. [See Vol.1]
WILKINS. An early reference to the Llantwit branch of the family is in 1671 when Edward Wilkins lived at Little Frampton. The family accrued land and property including Great Frampton, Lower House Farm, West Farm and West House. Great Frampton left the family in 1862 when the heiress, Emma, died and the land went to her husband, Col. Gould. The rest of the Wilkins land went to EllenWilkins who married a Vachell and who later became Mrs. Murley of Bath. The land stayed with her the family until 1919. [See Vol.7]
VACHELL. This family was a wealthy Cardiff family where they owned significant property in the town centre. They took part in many community projects such as the library, the museum, and the Council. Their association with Llantwit Major came through Frederick Vachell who married Ellen Wilkins of West House. The last Vachell son to live in Llantwit was Ernest Frederick de Winton Tanfield Vachell ,also of West House, who died at sea in 1903. [See Vol.7]