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TWO HAWARDEN DOCUMENTS OF 1746-7 The County Library has recently acquired a number of manu- scripts connected with Hawarden. Two of these MSS. are the work of Edward Thomas, whose efforts to mend the ways of one Dewes are described in Willet*s Memoir of Hawarden Parish (pp. 59-61), and are concerned with incidents in which he and a man named Thomas Fisher are the chief characters. This Thomas Fisher is also mentioned by Willet (p. 113). The first document reads as follows Be it here remembred. That on Friday the 30th day of January 17461 abt. the hour of four in the afternoon of the same day, as I, Edward Thomas, Vestry Clerk & Register of the Parish and peculiar jurisdiction of Hawarden in the County of Flint, was going (by appointment) to wait on ye revd. Mr. Williams, Rector and ordinary of the Sd parish and jurisdictn to consult abt. parish affairs, & being on horseback, I met wth one John Mousdale & one Wm Thomas (two parishioners) in the open street, near to the Sd. Rector's house, with whom I had some conversation, wth respect to the poor of their township, & their necessities, & more particularly ab1. some Poor's Gowns, Weh were soon to be distri- buted according to annual custom, and whilst we were conver- sing together upon that subject, and that in a very friendly & peaceable manner, Thomas Fisher of Hawarden afd, late parish clerk, (and who at a meeting and complaint of the Parishioners to the Sd Mr. Rector Williams, the Sunday before being the 25th of Sd Jan1*, had been suspended from his Sd office) came hastily out of the house of one Thomas Fox a victualler opposite the place where we were conversing, and in a furious and very angry manner Note. just as told me, that I had applyed that charity contrary to Fisher came the Will of the Donor, for that the Legacy was to out John cloath ten poor widows annually and that he knew Mousdale went a certain marryed woman had been clothed the off year before. I then told him that he was very much mistaken, for that by a copy of the clause taken out of the Donor's will which I wd at any time show him, it is there me- tioned, Ten poor people (& not Widows) of the Sd. parish, so that a marryed Woman might be as reall an object of our notice as a Widow-whereupon he then not only openly and publickly gave me the lye, but also told me I was a Villain and a Rascall, and at the same time uttered a great deal of scandalous reproachfull & un- decent language, and threatened me to a great degree. Seeing then his rage and fury agt me was wound up to such an unexpected height, I was determined not to be provoked or incensed thereat, and to pass it by for that time and accordingly, in a very calm and i. This is old style': by modem reckoning the year was 1747.