Welsh Journals

Rhostafarn. The Census, however, gives Isaac Jones, aged 67, his son Evan Jones aged 27, both carpenters, and the wife, Mary, all born in the parish. Their ages, occupation, and the situation of their dwelling in High Street make it clear that these are the persons under consider- ation. Ordinarily, after the Welsh fashion, the father's name was used as surname but for official purposes they claimed to be Joneses. Entries in the family Bible support this view Isaac Thomas, Carpen- ter, in the County of Cardiganshire 1824 Isaac Thomas, Rock, Llandyssil, 1827, 1832 In 1841 Daniel Thomas' Saer Coed owned and occupied Rock. By 1851 he had moved to Tyssul Rock on the higher road and Rock, then known as Black Lion, had become a grammar school. Isaac Thomas, probably Daniel's brother, in the meantime, had established himself at Penpistill (Gwylfa) where Owen Evans (1808 — 1865), the father-in-law of William James, M.A., kept a school for a short time in the eighteen-thirties. By 1861, when Evan Isaac married, both he and his father had courageously decided to discard the surname of Jones, but Evan Isaac's brother, fy mhrawd Daio as a witness at the wedding and one of the hosts at the bidding signed his name as David Jones. Hanes Plwyf Llandyssul has one reference to Evan Isaac Thomas. It says that in 1834 he attended a school kept by Walter Davies in a blacksmith's shop near the King's Head. Fellow pupils of his were Dafydd John y Crydd' and Bili'r Swan One of the features of the school was to hold what was known as a Poso a sort of Quiz which took place before school closed on Fridays. The pupils were arranged in two ranks. The members of each rank in turn questioned their opposites in the other rank. The scholar who scored the greatest number of correct answers was presented with a ribbon to put round his hat band, which he wore to go home. It became a familiar occurr- ence to see Evan Isaac scamper home with the coveted bunting aloft. It was here that he learnt to speak and write English in a near approach to copperplate For this there was a sinister badge known as the Welsh Note' which the unfortunate boy was given who lapsed into Welsh and which was held by him until he could pass it on to the next culprit. The boy who held it when school closed was' given the cane Ysgol y Gof' was the last school in Llandysul to use this aid to instruction and it was probably the last to teach (and successfully) without a blackboard. Particulars about Evan Isaac's marriage and early married life were difficult to obtain and all that could be remembered by the members of the third generation was that the bride's sister had ridden to the bidding' on horse-back. She had set out from Llangeler but her destination had been forgotten. Enquiries at Somerset House revealed