Welsh Journals

Some former Kerry Landowners. In Vol. XXVII. of these Transactions the late Rowley Morris wrote about the Fox family of Gwernygo in this parish, and of Cainham near Ludlow, and stated that Somerset Fox, the elder and the younger, both lost money by raising loans in the royalist cause in the Civil Wars. This is proved by the sale of Dolforgan, spelt Dolvorgan in the deed, in this parish, on August 6th, 1647,1 to Richard Herbert for £ 100. It seems that Richard's father, Oliver Herbert, described of Llan- dewig, gent. had had a lease and lived at Dolforgan since 1634. Oliver's wife's name was Mary, and she died and was buried at Kerry in December 1669. Richard died in April 1696. His son, John Herbert, lived at Cwmydalva, and was sheriff in 1717.2 It was to Cwmydalva that he found it impossible to get lime, which one can well believe from the hilly roads, and bad surface of those days. In the same sale, Richard Herbert is stated to have bought, as part of Dolforgan, a field called Y BRYN GWYNEY, which is still known by that name, or as The Sign Mount," a spur of Penaran. It is on the farm of the Herbert Arms (hence "The Sign" title) i.e. No. 4011 on the ordnance. Tradition says that the oak which was felled on that field in the middle of last century was sold to Lairds of Birkenhead, and that from it the famous Alabama was made. 1 Coleman Deeds, Nat Lib. of Wales, p 149. 2 Wrongly called of Dolforgan, Mont. Coil. Vol II., p 387.