Welsh Journals

THE MAKING OF RADICAL MERTHYR, 1800-1836 'RESOLVED: that all the pews in the Church be made uniform and of the same height as the Iron Masters' pews, except those of Mr. Crawshay, Mr. Forman, Mr. Hill and Mr. Guest.' Minute-book of the Parish of Merthyr Tydfil, 6 May 1818. DAVID WILLIAM JAMES, tanner, Unitarian, Radical, and, according to the Merthyr Guardian which viewed his political activities with an unfriendly eye, embryonic alderman of the new, corporate, and rotten borough of Merthyr Tydfil, rose to propose a toast at the dinner held at the Castle Inn on 20 December 1832, to celebrate the unopposed return of Josiah John Guest as the town's first parlia- mentary representative. 'The Iron Trade', he gave his audience, 'and may it regain that state of prosperity which will enable the master to afford such wages as will make those whom he employs valuable customers to the Trade of Merthyr', a sentiment greeted with tremendous cheering, which lasted for some minutes.1 Mr. James, if a shade optimistic in his vision of a happy symbiotic relationship, had directed attention to the three basic factors whose interaction was shaping the new urban personality of Merthyr Tydfil. It was in the first census of 1801 that Merthyr, with over 7,700 inhabitants, appeared as the most heavily populated parish in Wales, and evidently made its appearance with some abruptness, for it was only in that year that the Glamorgan magistrates took steps to divide the Hundred of Caerphilly, in which the township stood, as a first attempt to deal with the situation.2 In each of the three succeeding decades, the number of inhabitants increased by a half, to reach an effective total of some 26,000 on the eve of the Merthyr Riots. The increase in the following ten years was even more remarkable, and made the decade 1831-41 the peak of the first phase of urbanization in South Wales.3 This process, coinciding as it did with the profound changes which accompanied the Reform crisis of 1829-34, created a new community with a peculiar social and political potential. What decided the character of that community was the intricate interplay, economic, political, doctrinal, and personal, between the masters and managers of its great industrial 1 Merthyr Guardian, 29 December 1832. See Merthyr Tydfil Parish Minute-book, April and May 1801. The parish minute-books are available at the Central Library, county borough of Merthyr Tydfil, in two volumes. 1799-1833 and 1833-96. They are henceforth referred to as M.T. Minutes. 3 Census, Enumeration Abstracts, 1801-41. and see Asa Briggs, The Age of Improvement (London, 1959).