Welsh Journals

THE HIGHMEAD DAIRY, 1778-97 IT was rare for a woman of the eighteenth century to become known for her farming ability, much rarer than today, but that was the reputation which Mrs. Anne Evans of Highmead in the parish of Llanwenog enjoyed among her contemporaries in South Cardiganshire. Writing in 1808, soon after her death, Samuel Rush Meyrick, the Cardiganshire historian, states that though a lady, her agricultural knowledge and practice far exceeded that of any man in the county.' She was known locally as Anne Goch', either because of her ruddy complexion or of her red hair. Although living in Cardiganshire, she was a Pembrokeshire woman, being the eldest of the five children of the Reverend Watkin Lewis, son of John Lewis of Tredefaid in the parish of Llantood. The Reverend Watkin Lewis lived at Penybenglog in the parish of Meline he was rector of Meline (1735-59) and Newport (1739-70). He married Anne Williams of Ambleston who bore him four children besides Anne, and of these the second son, Sir Watkin Lewes, achieved fame in his day. A lawyer by profession, he became prominent in civic and Welsh literary circles in London, an M.P., and lord mayor there he was knighted in 1773 and died in penury in a debtor's gaol. The Reverend Watkin Lewis made a good match for his daughter Anne when she married Herbert Evans, a well-to-do squire with a considerable estate in land in the Llanwenog district and a rental of nearly £ 1,000 a year, and boasting a proud ancestry. It is said that by his marriage to Anne Lewis his estate was greatly enriched. Herbert Evans, who became sheriff of Cardiganshire in 1782, built the mansion of Highmead (or Dolau Bach as it was known in Welsh) in 1777 on the estate of his mother, one of the Lloyds of Castell Howel. The house is now a school for retarded children. Anne Evans bore her husband twelve children, four of whom died young, and when he died at the age of forty-four in 1787 she became wholly responsible for the manage- ment of the estate, the household, and the home farm, which she ran with such efficiency that men commended her for the high standard of husbandry at Highmead. In view of her renown in this field it is fortunate that some proof of this still exists in her manuscripts which have come down to us in the collection of Highmead family papers which is now in the National Library of Wales. An inveterate scribbler, Anne Evans recorded with meticulous care and regularity in her account book and diaries everything that happened on the Highmead home farm, giving particular attention to the profit and loss of all her enterprises and noting every detail of the economy. Her large account book from 1778