Welsh Journals

Search over 450 titles and 1.2 million pages

Unfortunately, as the evidence which has so far come to light is not complete, it is not known how successful were the claims of the three men from Borth. We are however informed that some members of the crew of the ill-fated vessel went to the mines in search of work which they easily procured. National Library of Wales. DAVID JENKINS. RHYFEL Y SAIS BACH.' IN discussing native opposition to the enclosure movement in nineteenth century Wales, modern historians in quoting one particularly extreme example have almost without exception erronously located it at Cors Fochno.i Mr. J. Myfenydd Morgan, and Mr. John Jones (' Ifon ') in Cymru Fu, i, 322 (Cardiff, 1888), and The Welsh Gazette, 1899-1900, respectively describe how a wealthy Englishman named Augustus Brackenbury, having built a large house on the western side of Mynydd Bach, within half a mile of Llyn Eiddwen, then set about enclosing portions of the surrounding common. The local inhabitants resented his interference to such a degree that after some skirmishes they marched to the castle and wilfully destroyed it. Undaunted, Brackenbury rebuilt his mansion, and this time dug a deep moat around it. His conduct, however, incensed his opponents, and Rhyfel y Sais Bach' (' The War of the little Englishman'), as it became generally known, in- creased in tempo, until finally, one night, a number of men dressed in women's clothes and with blackened faces dragged him beyond the moat and there held him while the building was set on fire. A court case followed. The original hearing at Aberystwyth appears to have caused a good deal of resentment among the defendants and their supporters, and consequently the trial was transferred elsewhere. The inhabitants of the hundred of liar addressed the following petition to Pryse Pryse, Esq., Gogerddan, then Member of Parliament for the county, and a gentleman well known for his radical tendencies, probably after the first demolition of the castle and before burning the second castle.2 The Humble Petition of the Inhabitants of the Hundred of Ilar in the County of Cardigan. Whereas the following is a true Statement of Augustus Brackenbury and his Men's Barbarity and illegal Proceedings on Mynydd bach previous to the demolishing and pulling down his Castle and Fortress on the sd. Mountain, is submitted to your wise Consideration. On Sunday 23d of April as Elizabeth Jones was going from her Service on a Visit to her Parents, passing near his Castle, she was drag'd by Brackenbury and one of his Bullies with Imprecations of throwing her into a deep Moat which surrounds his Castle. Her Cries being heard by a Man who happen'd to be near went to her Assistance, whom they also abus'd in a most barbarous Manner holding a Musket to his Face, threatening to shoot him, but at last struck him with the Muzzle of it and cut a deep Gash on his upper Lip. had he iR. T. Jenkins, Hanes Cymru yn y bedwaredd ganrif ar bymtheg, p. 72 (cf. p. 68 where Rhyfel y Sais Bach' is correctly stated to have been fought on Rhos Haminiog). David Williams, A History of Modern Wales, 1950, p. 199. 2Hence the present-day Cofadail.'