Welsh Journals

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The diary of the schoolmaster, William Thomas of Michaelston super Ely, covers the years 1762 to 1795 and contains a diversity of local intelligence on personalities, events and scandals in Glamorgan. By the 1790s, when the diary overlaps with that of John Bird, the entries are little more than catalogues of deaths and burials, with only the occasional leavening of biographical details or social comment. But, covering as they do a critical period of social change and industrial development in Glamorgan, both diaries provide valuable in- sights into the history of town and county in the late eighteenth century. Events such as the meetings of the Court of Great Sessions, the progress of the Glamorganshire Canal, the borough elections of 1790 and 1794 are re- corded by both diarists. Both make reference to the death and burial of mem- bers of Glamorgan's gentry and aristocracy, such as Mrs John Richards (nee Mary Birt) in 1790 and Lord Mountstuart in 1794. But, with his penchant for recording current scandal and gossip, William Thomas elaborates on some of the more sober recitals found in John Bird's diary. It is doubtful that Bird would have considered the peccadillos of Peter Birt junior, and his liaison with his mistress Anna Plumber, fit or relevant information to be relayed to the Marquess of Bute, information provided by William Thomas when recording the death of Birt in November 1788. Where Bird records with factual brevity the proceedings of the October Sessions in Cardiff in 1791 and the sentencing of two prisoners to death for burglary, William Thomas's diary provides bio- graphical notes on the prisoners and comments on the execution. Bird's prime concern in compiling his diary was to chronicle events of relevance to the Cardiff Castle estate. While there are occasional references to Bute interests at Cowbridge, Merthyr or Caerphilly the diary is almost exclus- ively concerned with people and events in Cardiff. William Thomas cast his net wider, gathering news from all over Glamorgan, yet it is strange that it is he, Thomas, who records outbreaks of smallpox and other diseases raging in Car- diff in the 1790s, local 'news' which Bird ignores entirely in his writings. Where Bird's diary entries are spasmodic William Thomas's compilation runs in unbroken sequence. Between August 1793 and September 1794 when Bird's diary is empty, William Thomas records the death of Lord Mountstuart and the election of his brother Lord Evelyn Stuart to succeed him as M.P. for the Glamorgan boroughs, and the deaths of Walter Williams the Neath attor- ney, Thomas Williams attorney of Cowbridge 'an honest man and one of the oldest lawyers in Glamorgan', and William Thomas of Llanbradach 'a civil quiet gentleman who died from a lingering dropsy', all of whom were among Bird's acquaintances. Brief Notes on the Diary of William Thomas. Appendix F