Welsh Journals

DISTRESS AND DISCONTENT IN CARDIGANSHIRE, 1814-1819 It would be fair to say that no Welsh county was more disturbed in the late 1810s than Cardiganshire. The discontent was the result of deep-rooted causes and of sudden economic catastrophe. The chief problem in the county, as in rural Wales in general, was overpopu- lation. There was a greater rise in population between 1801 and 1821 than there had been during the second half of the eighteenth century. This sharp increase had disastrous results. There are not many Manufactories in this part of Wales,' said one observer in 1821, and', he went on, the labouring Class of Society is too numerous in pro- portion to the land now under cultivation, .2 It is easy to see how this pressure on land resources led to an increase in rents, a trend which became particularly noticeable towards the end of the Napoleonic wars.3 The total rental of the Picton estate in south-west Wales rose from over £ 5,659 in 1792 to over £ 7,619 in 1805,4 whilst on the Crosswood estate of Lord Lisburne there was a more than three-fold increase between 1801 and 1814.5 In the latter instance the rise occurred every seven years, an indication of the general move towards shorter leases.6 The Cardiganshire tenant- farmer in 1814, therefore, found that holding land was both more expensive and less secure than it had been at the end of the previous century. Two other developments, the consolidation of farms and the enclosure of land, added to his worries. The farms of Wales, though small in comparison with those in England, increased in size consider- ably during the eighteenth century, and continued to grow in the early years of the nineteenth.7 Many people, including Walter Davies, feared the social consequences of this development.8 Similar concern was felt over the private and parliamentary enclosure of waste and common land. The Welsh enclosure movement was at its height between 1793 and 1815.9 In these years Parliament authorised the enclosure of some 10,000 acres in Cardiganshire.10 This was opposed by the poorer people of the county for various reasons. Many squatters believed that control of their properties would pass forever into the hands of powerful local landowners such as Lord Lisburne, John Vaughan, the Reverend Thomas Jones Gwynne, and John Lloyd of Mabws. Other rights of the Cardiganshire peasantry were also threatened by enclosure, especially the custom of cutting turf for fuel. The peat fens in the county were some of the best in Wales" and were valuable because of the high cost of obtaining coal from Carmarthenshire." Although the enclosure award of 1816